Members of Itzayan Danza Folklorico, including Ashley Cruz, center, practice at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 3, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
Folkloric Dancing has a long history in Latin America, and Itzayan Danza Folklorico is performing in Wilmington keeping the tradition alive.
This reporting was made possible in part by a grant from the Fourth Estate Fund.
In the basement of the Hannah Block USO Community Arts Center, a dozen girls and women whirl around in colorful skirts, dancing el Baile Folklórico. These are dances that originated in the pre-Spanish days in Latin America, a heritage hundreds or even thousands of years old.
The group is called Itzayan Danza Folklorico, and it started practicing in Wilmington 10 years ago under the watchful tutelage of Gladys Bejar. She primarily recruited from her church community, she says.
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Instructor Gladys Bejar leads practice for Itzayan Danza Folklorico at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
"I saw a lot of young people who needed support, and someone to listen to them, because parents work a lot here, and we forget about the children. So I said, 'I need something to keep them active and not out on the streets or harboring negative thoughts," she explained, in Spanish.
More recently, the group got non-profit status, thanks to its vice president, Daisy Aurora Perez Peralta. She’s a 19-year-old business student at CFCC, and wanted to help professionalize the organization that’s meant so much to her.
“I kind of joined in high school, I was there for about a year, and I realized we kind of needed to, we could do better, like I guess we could grow. And since I'm already a business student, I decided just to kind of take that business aspect and turn it into a nonprofit," she said.
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Instructor Gladys Bejar, left, leads practice with Daisy Aurora Perez Peralta, right, for Itzayan Danza Folklorico at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
Even if she has less time for it these days, she still loves the dance.
"I love the storytelling aspect. I love when we make a little story, like our most recent dance, it's called El Gusto,” she said. “It's like there's a new guy in town. And all the girls in the beginning of the dance, they like blushing and swooning over him, and one falls over, like, going like this, so it's really cute. And then throughout the dance, every girl gets a chance to dance with him," she said.
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Hailey Miguel poses for photos with other members of Itzayan Danza Folklorico during practice at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
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Deborah Fernanda, left, and Hailey Miguel, right, braid a hair piece, which will be used when they perform with their dance group Itzayan Danza Folklorico, during practice in Wilmington on July 3, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
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Deborah Fernanda holds her shoes following practice with Itzayan Danza Folklorico in Wilmington on July 3, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
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Nicole Bahena practices with Itzayan Danza Folklorico in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
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Ashley Cruz tightens her skirt during practice with Itzayan Danza Folklorico at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 3, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
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Instructor Gladys Bejar, right, leads practice with Nicole Bahena, left, for Itzayan Danza Folklorico at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
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The girls spin their skirts, dancing around the central man, fawning over him and taking their turns courting. Aurora compares it to tropical birds: “Their little mating dances. It's kind of similar to that.”
Brianna Cruz has been a member for six years, since she was 13. For her, it’s all about the dresses.
"I love being in this dress. Honestly, it's a part of me. It does get pretty hard, yes, with skirt work — strong arms! — but I think I love, yeah, I just love being in this dress," she said.
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Members of Itzayan Danza Folklorico, including Ashley Cruz, center, practice at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 3, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
Her cousin, Ashley Cruz, agrees.
"It's like when you're holding it and you can feel almost like you're carrying the material, you're throwing it in your face, it feels powerful, almost. It's like you can feel the breeze that it creates. And when you walk past somebody that's also dancing, it's like you can just feel it, and it feels cool," she said.
Though they are a key component, Baile Folklorico isn’t just about the pretty dresses. Aurora says there are complex rhythms each dancer taps out.
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Members of Itzayan Danza Folklorico tighten each other's skirts during practice at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 3, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
“It [feels] like a mixture of tap dancing and what we call, in Spanish, 'zapateado'. It's just translates directly to stomping. It really is a mix of stomping and tap dancing, I guess, because you'll hear a lot of beats, and then you'll hear our feet match those same beats," she said.
Zapateado has indigenous origins in regions in Mexico and several other Latin American countries, Aurora says. It shares its loud, rhythmic, clacking steps with tap, though the two forms are unrelated; tap comes from the United States as a fusion of Irish step dancing and West African dance forms.
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Melissa Garcia practices with Itzayan Danza Folklorico in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
The dancers move in choreographed patterns, swirling like water currents across the floor. To Aurora, it’s the perfect way to connect to her community and to her culture, especially in a region that’s predominantly White.
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Members of Itzayan Danza Folklorico practice at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
At her high school in Wilmington, she said, “We all felt a little — I guess the term would be whitewashed. But we wanted to — I wanted to get closer to my heritage and find ways to get closer to my community as well. So this has really been able to bring that together.”
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Members of Itzayan Danza Folklorico practice at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 3, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
Ashley agrees — particularly in a time in the U.S. when Latinos often feel under fire.
“This culture is beautiful, and that's what we're trying to show. It's like, I don't know why you guys hate so much. Like, look at what we can do," she said. "We're pretty, we're cute. Like, they can't deny it. They can't. How can you deny it? These colors are in your face. You're gonna be like, 'eww?' They're, nice to see. I think it's just entertaining to watch."
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Members of Itzayan Danza Folklorico practice at the Hannah Block Historic USO / Community Arts Center in Wilmington on July 17, 2025. The group, which features traditional Latin American folk dances, was started ten years ago by Gladys Bejar and has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that performs at public and private events throughout the community.
She's right: the colors are mesmerizing, and it is entertaining to watch. Itzayan Danza Folklorico performs regularly in the region, and they’re slated to perform at the Hispanic Festival in Ogden the second weekend in November.
Kelly Kenoyer is an Oregonian transplant on the East Coast. She attended University of Oregon’s School of Journalism as an undergraduate, and later received a Master’s in Journalism from University of Missouri- Columbia. Contact her by email at KKenoyer@whqr.org.
Madeline Gray is a freelance documentary photographer based in Wilmington. She enjoys spending time in places that are off the beaten track and collaborating to share the diverse stories found there.
With a master's degree in photojournalism, her work is regularly featured in local and national publications, including NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed News, AARP, The Undefeated, Narratively, WUNC, Columbia Journalism Review, Yes! Magazine, Walter Magazine, and WHQR.
