Campus, News

Alianza Lantina burns up the dance floor

‘ Latin American music flooded through Boston University’s Metcalf Hall where the about 50 attendees said they could not resist dancing to musical combinations ranging from reggae to salsa to cumbia Friday night.

At ‘Explosion Latina,’ a series of performances sponsored by Alianza Latina, a variety of Boston-based groups, along with a reggae group from Miami, combined their artistic talents in celebration of Latino culture.

Alianza Latina President Francesca Roettger-Moreda said this event was more performance-oriented than the group’s other event, ‘Pachanga,’ which includes more culture and food.

‘The event went amazingly,’ Roettger-Moreda said.

Alianza Latina Event Coordinator Natalie Aguilar-Gonzales said she also thinks ‘Explosion Latina’ was extremely successful. It is their biggest event of the year.

Local 34, a Miami-based band, opened the performances with cumbia music, a distinct Colombian style, as well as reggae. The lead singer asked an attendee from the front row to join the band onstage and serenaded her with ‘Todo tu Cuerpo,’ while she danced along.

The groups came from several Boston schools, including Berklee College of Music and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Berklee’s Limbistica brought the audience to their feet with one performance, as people danced salsa next to the stage.

Capriccio, an MIT group, played flamenco music with two flamenco guitars and hand drums. A malfunctioning microphone delayed their performance a few minutes.

In between performances, Alianza Latina gave away ‘Yo Amo BU’ t-shirts to audience members who participated in a ‘La Macarena’ dancing contest and answered trivia questions.

Speak For Yourself, a BU slam poetry group, also performed poems about topics such as distinct aspects of Puerto Rican and Dominican accents and the power of love. SFY President Hakim Walker’s poem emphasized the ability for love to transcend money.

‘If we have a child, we’ll wrap him with love . . . and newspapers,’ Walker recited.

Boston College’s ‘Fuego del Corazon’ Latin dance troupe concluded the event with more contemporary hip-hop.

Overall, Alianza Latina members said they thought all the performances were great, despite the brief microphone delay.

‘The event had a few technical glitches,’ Alianza Latina Treasurer Yvonne Rivera said. ‘But it went well.’

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One Comment

  1. Excelent article! Wonderfully written.