Moving to the music

The ancient moves and sounds of Africa were roused back to life Friday, not on the plains of the Serengeti -- but inside a Yuma gymnasium.

Young feet stomped as hands waved and hips spun to the contagious beat of drums as students at the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club showed their parents what they learned in a monthlong African dance class. Their artistry was pretty effective, too, as parents and other adults gathered inside the club's gym found themselves bumping and grinding, even just a bit, along with the music.

But being loose and just letting go is key with this kind of dance, according to dance instructor Evelyn Scott-Pedraza.

"It lets you do more stuff and just go crazy," Scott-Pedraza said. "This style is just so free. That's why I love it."

Scott-Pedraza has taught the three-hour African dance classes five times a day for the past month at the Boys and Girls Club. Friday was the grand finale, with the kids dancing in front of an audience for the first time.

"We learned a lot of steps and if we mess up, she'll help us," said 9-year-old Damian Velasco just minutes before performing. "This is my first time dancing in front of an audience."

Velasco and another boy, Scott-Pedraza's son Jerome, performed the second number of the afternoon, proudly marching back and forth while holding long, light wooden batons in front of them.

"My friends said it would be boring, but I don't think of that," Velasco said. "It's nice because some people think dancing is only for girls, but it isn't. A lot of people can do it!"

He added that the class has taught him a true fascination for Africa, too.

"It would be a lot of fun," the young boy said. "I've never been there and I want to go there."

The kids in Scott-Pedraza's classes ranged in age from 6 to 12, with most of the dancers being young, Hispanic girls, although a couple black girls enjoyed the class as well.

"Sometimes three show up. Sometimes it's 20," the instructor said.

Scott-Pedraza, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., has been teaching African dance professionally since 1973 and moved to Yuma not long ago.

She explained that although there are traditional moves to learn with African dance styles, how those moves are woven together is usually left for the dancer or dancers to improvise right there on the stage in the moment of performance.

"Before it was much more interpretive and it was traditional, however," she said. "Today, it's getting more and more choreographed."

Scott-Pedraza said her goals for the class reached far beyond just teaching the kids how to dance. She also wanted to demonstrate just how the continent of Africa is extremely culturally diverse. It cannot be stereotyped.

"I also want them to learn how to be open. Don't be closed," Scott-Pedraza said, explaining that just being introduced to something different like dance can jar the mind open. "This dance itself is foreign."

The dances Scott-Pedraza teaches come mostly from West Africa and most tell a story, whether it's about a battle or a village's plea for rain.

"The batakato is a dance of challenge and I love it do death," she said, explaining that male and female dancers are divided by a corps of drums. "The movement is really up to the dancer. When I used to dance batakato, I was, too, not feminine. I was too forceful."

Another one of Scott-Pedraza's students, 10-year-old Victoria Sanchez, said she simply finds the dances to be plain old fun.

"I've liked learning the moves and doing them. Some are easy, but then they can get really hard," Sanchez said.

The young dancer agreed with her teacher about the style's freedom of movement, too.

"You can move your whole body," she said, grinning. "With other dances you just move your feet and maybe your hands. But with this you move your head, you move your hips and you move your hands and feet. It's just great."