For nearly 20 years, school run by San Francisco pair connects people to dance
A San Francisco husband and wife have been connecting people to cultural music and dance traditions in the Mission District for 18 years.
For Jesus Cortes, dancing is a gift that he and his wife, Ariane Cortes, share at their Cuicacalli Dance Company. In the Aztec language, "Cuicacalli" means "house of culture."
"We were so happy to found it and bring it to the community," Jesus said.
The pair has run the Cuicacalli dance program for 18 years. They find their rhythm as a team.
"I'll come up with these musicial ideas, and he'll have the steps to go with them," Ariane said of their partnership. "That's something really golden and very hard to find."
The pair offers beginning to advanced dance lessons to students, aged 5 to 22 years old at the Brava Theater.
Cuicacalli is not only a resident artist at Brava, but also at the San Francisco Unified School District, where 900 students learn from the dance program every year.
Artistic director Jesus Cortes admits this is not what he planned, growing up in Mexico.
"I really was looking for a way to play soccer, but my Mom said I need to learn a discipline," he chuckled.
So he took free lessons from his great grand uncle, a professional dancer.
I did fell in love with dance because I found my identify," Cortes said.
And when Jesus came to the U.S. in 2007, he wanted to make that cultural heritage accessible to children in the Mission District, so Cuicacalli Dance Company was born.
He and Ariane - a music educator - teach about 80 students at Brava Theater, most of them on scholarships funded by grants and donations.
She explained, "The arts make our children thoughtful and have souls and be creative and work as a community."
Students step into Mexican folk dance, hip hop, even a fusion of classical and contemporary.
Laura Padilla enrolls her two kids for the connection.
"It's about embodying who they are through dance," Padilla said.
Years of dance lessons have helped American-born Tifanny Romero wrap her arms around her culture.
"I don't think I'm very close to my heritage but throughout my experience here at Cuicacalli, I've been able to learn new dances from new places that I haven't visited," the 17-year-old said.
And 18-year-old Leopoldo Paniagua said the Cortes family helps him keep a firm footing in life.
"They push me to do better, become a better person, stay out of the streets, from doing bad things, they've kept me on the right pathway," he said.
This year, the students will perform in the parade at SF Carnaval for the first time. They're raising funds to build their float.
Registration is also open for their summer camp, which also includes jazz and Afro Latino music.
Whether performing for an audience or practicing in the studio Ariane and Jesus Cortes create a community to learn and grow.
"I want them to not only become great artists but better people," he said.
She added, "You see them as more than just a dancer. They're really part of your family, and you're going to be there for them through whatever they're doing through."
For enriching the lives of students through Cuicacalli dance lessons, this week's CBS News Bay Area Icon Award goes to Jesus and Ariane Cortes.
