"Teacher, I'm leaving class to go dance, chau!"
They would leave me in a confused daze, as I watched half my class disappear with a radio. I didn’t understand coming down to Bolivia that dancing is more important than my English class – not because dancing the Tinku will give then an edge when they eventually hit the job market, but because knowing how to dance, quite simply, makes you Bolivian.
With this perspective, I can understand why the school permits the students to practice – because to be illiterate in the language of the body, would also prevent the students from moving fluently within their own culture and society. So, before they learn anything else in school, they must first learn to dance.
As soon as the little ones can walk, there’s a distinctive waddle in their hips, and by the time they’ve reached Kinder there’re wearing their mom’s makeup with a tablecloth and shaking it like Shakira. It’s rather impressive. I’m always amused when they try teaching me; even when I tell them my hips don’t move like theirs. When I watch the junior high students – all the awkwardness of puberty is masked behind bright beautiful flowing skirts and crisp white linen, making perfect young suitors.
I wonder why so many young Americans chose to dance the way they do, when they could dance like the Bolivians! :)
By knowing how to dance, these young Bolivians are filled with culture, pride and more importantly – confidence. To have confident students aware of their bodies and culture is beautiful to witness, and having confident students is all a teacher could ask for.
"I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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