Kimmie as Mary Murphy

So one of our on-going Saturday activities has been a dance competition a la So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. Each week, the same couples of kids of the same age compete in two dance categories and are judged by a panel of “experts.” There are three scores plus the “Voto Secreto” and there’s a running tally to decide who goes to the finals.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to help the Hijas de María and San Francisco (the youngest kids after Casa Suyapa) with their merengue. It was fun to teach my students something outside of school, and I love when little kids dance in couples. When I showed a new step, they all wanted to try it with me, which is quite funny since I’m just a bit taller than the average Honduran 8 year-old. I bowed out of helping with punta because I can’t do it. It’s a booty-shaking dance with roots in the Garifuna culture of the north coast and is completely exhausting.

Even though it was my weekend off, I showed up to watch the performance. There, I got roped in by the tías to being a judge. It was really fun being on the panel and getting to see all the dances, until…Yamileth came out to dance with her partner “Justin Bieber.” Turns out Yami had some trouble finding a partner, so she got one of the other girls to dress up as a dude and they danced an excellent merengue. During the performance, the powers that be decided they would be eliminated because the rules were that it had to be a boy and a girl. I was so infuriated. I gave them a standing ovation, and when they passed me the microphone I congratulated the girls on finding a creative solution to the problem that sometimes the boys just don’t want to dance and that for me, the performance was a 10. The crowd of kids erupted in cheers of, “¡Te queremos, Kimmie, te queremos!” The MC and several others came to congratulate me for speaking up. Some people probably weren’t too happy, but if they didn’t want my opinion they shouldn’t have asked me to be a judge. End righteous indignation.

So after that, I got roped into helping with several more dances for this week (again for my weekend off). I again helped the little ones, this time with a bachata, which is a slow, romantic style that I love. Friday night, I helped Yamileth and Hallan (she got my godson to dance with her so she could qualify) with their rock and roll number. Tía Mirna asked me to create a dance for Pilares, not as part of the competition but just as a demonstration, so we worked on that Saturday after mass. The night was really fun. I judged again (this time the Secret Vote) and felt really comfortable given constructive criticism in Spanish and felt like I had good pointers for the dancers. Nataly and Isaac (brother of Eliu, my favorite dance partner – see a previous post) did an absolutely killer rock and roll number that had me on my feet and cheering. I danced with Pilares; we forgot some steps and one of the girls ran out in the middle from having pena, but it still turned out all right. And thus ended my last Rancho Santa Fe dancing adventure.