Kean Afro Latinx Dance Project hosts performance challenge
By De’von Mitchell | Published by November 12, 2019
Kean University is a campus that has many students from different backgrounds and cultures. With this in mind, the president of Kean University’s Afro Latinx Dance Project, Kristine Leslie has come up with a new event idea.
The Afro Latinx Dance Project is teaching free dance lessons each month for all Kean students with no prior experience needed. Students are allowed to wear anything that they feel comfortable dancing in.
With each month the style of dance being taught changes. For the month of November, the group will be teaching any participating Kean students, African style dancing.
“Cultural appreciation a blend of everything I’ve learned so far,” said Kristine Leslie, president of the Afro Latinx Dance project.
According to Cougarlink, the organization is an “inclusive, open-level dance group hosted at the Union Campus.”
The styles of dances explored within the classes are as widely diverse with an emphasis on Afro-Latin and Latin based genres. Some of the dances include: bachata, merengue, salsa, soca, kompa, kizomba.
Originally, Kristina Leslie and the founding vice president Andres Ramirez of the Afro Latinx Dance project taught classes off campus at NJ Fitness until the founding of the dance project here at Kean in February 2019 due to the inspiration that Ramirez gave Leslie.
For the organization’s first performance challenge on Oct. 30, students were taught Cuban and American style salsa.
“Learning new styles of dance is always progress,” said Kenneth Bautista, member of the Afro Latinx Dance project.
Bautista is one of the students to participate in the performance challenge learning the choreography and performing the dance on Oct. 30 at the fiesta mambo where students were taught Columbian style salsa.
The last Wednesday of every month from 8-9:30 p.m., a dance social called “Fiesta Mamba” will be hosted. The performance challenge will be hosted in the D’Angola gymnasium.