- [Announcer] "Expressions of Art" is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.

Learn more at arts.ca.gov and the City of San Bernardino Arts and Historical Preservation Commission with its commitment to visual and performing arts organizations that enhances the culture and economic well-being of the community, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

[orchestral string music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Lillian] Art is a form of expression.

It provides an image to express joy and sorrow, triumph, love, and so much more.

Art is symbolic, traditional, and contemporary.

It comes in so many forms: dance, music, song, theater, and photography.

It's on a stage and on a canvas.

The arts can play a critical role in our lives.

Art is all around us to embrace and enjoy!

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ [louder upbeat music] ♪ ♪ On today's show, we'll introduce you to three organizations that are focused on keeping the arts alive for our youth in our community.

♪ Preserving the Mexican culture and heritage through dancing is the mission of Ballet Folklórico de Riverside.

Dancers as young as five years old are excited to dress and present their heritage in a colorful way.

Founded in 1976 with 13 students, when they would practice in the driveways and in a garage!

(shoes tapping) [upbeat acoustic guitar music] - My name is Ana de la Tejera, and I am the director and founder of Ballet Folklórico de Riverside.

It began just as a gathering at a fiesta.

People just had the music going.

Little kids started dancing and they saw that I could possibly recruit and teach children how to dance.

I had the personality.

I was friendly.

I love kids.

So, it started with just old time friends and my two kids.

So, we began just practicing in a driveway and saw that the demand was there and grew rapidly.

- [Mona] I was a dancer.

I started when I was five.

I was one of the original members when Ana started the group.

There was a small group of us and we practiced at her house.

Then we moved to Arlanza School and that's where it started.

And then, we just grew.

- The dance group grew rapidly because of the need, I think, and not so much that the children were from Mexico.

The children are American citizens.

But, the parents, now grandparents, they were from Mexico; wanted to see their heritage continue within their children's children.

- It's a connection to my grandmother.

She would always go to all my performances.

She's always wanted a grandchild to dance in something like this and just to hold that culture.

So, I've been dancing for almost 15 years now.

So, it's still very close and dear.

- [Ana] I get a lot of feedback from the grandparents and emotional feedback from the grandparents.

Because again, they lived in Mexico; they came here.

They maybe have never gone back and will never go back.

But, to feel that little bit of cultural music and when they come to me and say, "I remember.

"I remember that when we used to do that.

"When we used to go to the church "and we used to have processions, and we used to do all of that."

So, they bring joy.

Now, they get proud of their children putting their grandchildren in.

Then, it shows a sense of pride.

It says, "I'm so happy that my daughter is bringing my granddaughter to this."

The daughter may not know anything because she didn't live there, but she feels joy and pride in bringing it together.

- I am a parent of one of the dancers, Jacob Soliz.

He surprised me one day!

We were at the Mariachi festival and his little friend that he was in day care with was performing and he said, "Mom, I wanna dance."

And, I was so excited [shoes tapping] because I have two older boys and they didn't wanna dance.

And so, when he wanted to dance, I was so excited.

So, he's been dancing since he's four.

He is now 16.

- I do it because I get to meet new people.

I get to travel.

I get to learn new material from different people.

I'm the only boy that really does it and I'm proud of doing it.

- The minute I tell somebody I dance Folklórico, they're like, "Oh, what's that?"

I always tell 'em, "it's Mexican folk dancing."

And they're like, "Oh, do you mean, like, with the skirts?"

I'm like, "Yes!

You see the big colorful skirts, "the movements and just the music and the representation of each region."

It gets them every time.

♪ We do learn dances from all states through Mexico.

So, with each region, like, currently right now my class is learning a Yucatán and a Nayarit.

So, those are different states in Mexico and those are just two right now.

- We like to bring, though, states that are not familiar within the community.

We always bring in the special, the ones that they like; of course, to keep the crowd going.

And, that's why we know that they're the special ones because the crowd gets very excited about 'em.

But, always bringing in other states of Mexico: Michoacán, Oaxaca, Chihuahua.

- [Jacob] I like doing Jalisco 'cause it's like you get to dance with a partner and you get to have fun with them, as well.

- For Yucatán, it's not as much skirt movement since the girls are wearing more of a straight skirt.

So, movement is here.

It's more sassiness in the shoulders.

Whereas in Nayarit, it's such a big skirt and the focus is on the movement of the skirt and making the colors kind of flow throughout each dance.

- [Ana] My students have stayed with me.

I have some for 30 years they've been with me.

So, out of the 46, they've been with me for 30 years.

- [Sarah] I was a dancer for about five years.

Five to seven years, I wanna say, before I transitioned into a teacher here.

Well?

I still do both, actually.

So, I danced with the adult group here and then I started teaching with the little ones.

I think they were five at the time.

Then, transitioned into elementary school age, middle school age.

And now, I have the high school age kids.

I've had the same group of kids since they were eight, nine years old and now they're 16, 17 years old.

So, I've seen them grow up.

- [Ana] Times are harder.

I think time-- that's one of the things that we've noticed.

That from 1976 to now, the speed of life is faster.

There's more demand for parents at work.

Parents are trying to keep their children off of screen time.

So they involve them in too many things, sometimes.

They can be into four or five extracurricular activities.

I can have a child coming from basketball into here or soccer or baseball, and it's very hard for them.

Back in the '70s, '80s, there was a choice.

You either do sports or you do folklórico because we can't do both.

And, it was easier.

Now, it's very hard with the population growing so, so much here in Riverside.

It's very difficult to get from point A to point B in 20 minutes!

(laughs) - Being exposed to something like this kept me busy.

It kept me wanting to learn more and wanting to do more and not distracted by whatever else was going on, on social media.

Or, I mean social media wasn't even around during when I was younger.

It was just starting.

So-!

It's just keeping them busy and keeping them encouraged to wanna do more and learn more here.

- [Mona] I love the program because we stay so in touch with our culture, our history, that gets everybody, the families involved.

It gets our children to be able to come together and be part of a good program.

And, get to know each other; learn more about their culture.

- Not everyone can get up and just perform.

And, these children may be shy.

They may be hiding behind the screen of a laptop or whatever but when they get out there, they shine.

And, when they see their parents responding, their grandparents responding with joy, tears of being so proud, that's what's important.

It's getting them to do something in a positive manner and be proud of it.

- I feel like every dancer has the potential to be able to be the dancer they want to be.

It's just the dedication that I hear a lot about.

- [Jacob] I gotta be the role model.

- [Ana] The things that are being taught are discipline, dedication, [background mariachi music] commitment, community involvement.

Not just with dance, but just being involved in the community in a positive manner.

Being proud of going out there and performing.

♪ Something that I thought was only gonna last a summer has come to be 46 years!

I started when I was 27 and now to be in my 70s, I'm very proud of that.

And, we've gone through a lot of challenges in those 46 years, but we've been blessed.

And, to know that we have the support from the community?

Because, it's the support of the community that has kept us open.

We're still here.

Thank God.

We're still here.

And, hopefully we'll be here for a longer period of time.

[upbeat mariachi music] - Preserving Mexican culture and providing a positive outlook for our students of all ages keeps Ballet Folklórico de Riverside centered.

To learn more about this dance organization, visit their website at bfdriv.org ♪ CHORDS Academy of the Arts is science, technology, engineering, art and math, a STEM-based enrichment program.

Edwin Johnson, CEO and founder, shares why he created the program and the positive effects it's having on students.

- [Edwin] A lot of the kids in these communities, most of the things they see is jail, violence or death, right?

And so, because of the lack of resources in the city of San Bernardino, they don't have an outlet.

So, this program is important because it gives the kids an outlet.

It give the kids empowerment and it give them hope.

[soulful keyboard and beats] ♪ [louder music] ♪ CHORDS stands for Creating Hopeful Opportunities and Resiliency by Developing Skills.

So, CHORDS Academy of the Arts is a program that allows youth to express themselves through the arts, several different elements of the arts.

We do music production.

We do lyric writing, reflective writing, podcasting.

We do video production and we do poetry.

- It was a little more than I did expect, you know, a lot more stuff besides just music.

'Cause I did think signing up for the class, I thought it would just be, like, us recording songs and stuff like that but it was a lot more to it.

- [Edwin] So, they come to our studio mostly on weekends but mostly we see them at their school sites.

- I decided to get involved because Edwin just came up into lunch one day and he just started blasting cool music and I was like, "You know what?

I should join."

- Go.

(wheels rattling) 1, 2.

1, 2, 3, Mic check.

1, 2, 3.

We're gonna be bringin' a program to y'all's school after school a couple days a week.

And, what we're going to be doin' is teaching you guys how to do music production, teaching you guys how to do video recording and teaching you how to do live performances.

- When I heard that we had a music class comin' to our school, it was just somethin' I wanted to be a part of.

- The first thing we do is we challenge their knowledge of music.

So, we teach 'em about the history of hip-hop, the culture of hip-hop and why hip-hop was used as a revolutionary tool back in the '70s.

And then, so what we get into is we start to tell 'em like, the rules.

'Cause if you hear the music of today it's so much profanity.

It's so much garbage.

They're talkin' about all sex, drugs, alcohol, all these different things that they glorify.

So, we tell 'em: listen.

You can't use profanity.

You can't glorify none of these things.

- Well, I can say I learned a lot.

Like, more how to come onto the track without usin' profanity and stuff like that.

'Cause, you know, we can't use that in the hip-hop class.

- [Edwin] Once they start writing, there's a process.

So, we may go from the writing part, from the bare minimum is okay, learn how to count bars; learn how to structure bars, learn how to rhyme words, learn about metaphors, learn about similes.

And so, we take 'em through this whole journey to where the big project is the songs.

♪ We the greatest ♪ ♪ We fight ♪ ♪ Usin' education ♪ ♪ Don't fight us, don't give us that temptation ♪ ♪ We're here to find them books ♪ ♪ We courageous ♪ ♪ Us boys, we the greatest ♪ ♪ We fight ♪ ♪ Usin' education ♪ ♪ Don't fight us, don't give us that temptation.

So!

♪ - [Edwin] Right.

So after they do a song, then there's a music video.

And so, it's the whole thing from the video treatment to how to use the camera; you know how to use the gimbals.

And so, these kids learn these different processes.

We really try to help them understand the power of writing, the power of reflecting on your life.

- [Edwin, mic] Like, the power of music generates the culture, generates how we dress, generates how we think about life.

Sometimes it generates how some people move, right?

- [Atonye] Hip-hop helps convey a message.

It helps bring asserting light to a situation.

- [Edwin] Well, I started this because I grew up right here in the city of San Bernardino as a homeless at-risk teen.

And so, by me going through that, I needed an outlet.

And so, what I found out that while I was doin' music, it gave me some healing.

And so, because I was able to escape through music, that's what I focused on instead of being in the streets hangin' out - I write about-- I would say, my past, my struggle, tryin' to make it out the struggle, tryin' to move on, be a better person, and stuff like that.

I be just whatever really comes to my head, I'll put it down.

- [Edwin] Kids are talkin' about suicide.

Kids are talkin' about being gang affiliated.

Kids are talkin' about run-ins with the police.

For a lot of the kids in the program, this is all they know.

And so, in this moment, they start to write things down, right?

And so, they don't know that the traumatic moments that they're writing, you know, it's helping them heal.

It's really not about music.

It's about the mentoring, and it's about the lifelong skills that they get while they're in the program.

And, how they're able to see themselves differently.

- As time progresses, they get more comfortable with you.

They see that you have their best interest in heart.

- For me, I like Edwin 'cause he's kind of my mentor and stuff to help me, give me that more confidence, motivational boost.

- Their creativity can come out.

And, I mean it's not just music.

It's also spoken word, poetries.

And we see youth, they're just talking their feelings out.

They're expressing creating music and poetries that are not violent.

- [Isaac] I like to just sit there by myself, turn a beat on and write.

I actually enjoy writing 'cause I can actually think deeper into my thoughts and get it down.

- When I get bored at home or something, I'll listen to an instrumental so I make my own music.

- [Edwin] I can say that we have a major success story and our outcomes have been proven, because most of the kids still have never been in trouble, still never been to prison, still never been to jail, and they still come back to us.

- [Tristan] I still wanna stick with the program.

It's fun.

I don't think I'll ever want to leave it.

- I would like to do school, still do music.

Basically just live my life.

- [Edwin] So, we're more-?

So, we're still like mentors to them.

Like today, one of the students just hitting me up and said he wanted to talk to me about something that he's going through life as a man now with a child.

So the mentoring never stops, you know?

It's just a different kid in the seat.

[soulful keyboard and beats] ♪ And, that's how we create from the ground up.

Let's get it.

- CHORDS often participates in community events in our region that allows students to perform and showcase their talents, [background music] giving students the opportunity to perform outside their immediate circle, which can be empowering for our youth.

Learn more about CHORDS by visiting their website at chordsacademy.org [light fiddle music] For 100 years, the Redlands Bowl Performing Arts has presented world-class music and dance performances, all free-of-charge for the surrounding community to experience and enjoy.

But, their efforts go beyond their Summer Music Festival.

Year round, they work to bring music to everyone, including children within the region.

Their programs include Music in Schools, Arts Impact Initiatives, music theater camps, and the Children's Festival Workshop.

Valerie Peister, program director, shares more details.

(joyful fiddle music) (shoes tapping) ♪ - [Jon] Left, step, ball, step.

Right, step, ball, step.

(shoes tapping) Step, step.

- [Valerie] The mission of Redlands Bowl Performing Arts is "music for all."

And, we think it is-- we do our wonderful Summer Music Festival but we think it's also so important to bring music to younger generations.

We do Children's Festival Workshops as part of the summer season where we actually have main stage Bowl artists that do a workshop with children at the community center and the A.K.

Smiley Public Library.

Children's Festival Workshops are geared toward children ages 4 to 12.

[background fiddle music] The mission of the Redlands Bowl is music for all, so all are welcome to attend the workshops.

We invite families from all over the Inland Empire, and even beyond, anyone can come.

We want children to have an opportunity to learn from the artists.

And, a lot of times that involves the artists speaking, talking about their background, doing question and answer with the children that are there, just learning about them, learning about their art form, learning about them as people.

- So, my style of dance is Ottawa Valley step dancing.

It's Canadian.

Its origins come from the eastern part of Ontario, which borders on Quebec.

I've taken on performance and touring as my full-time career.

So there's not much time for teaching, but every time I get with a group of kids to study dance or music, I miss that.

Kids are so honest, you know?

They haven't developed certain tools to put filters on what they say!

- My grandma told me about this thing, and I wanted to learn the dance and I thought it was gonna be really fun.

My brother, on the hand, did not want to come but my dad put him in the car, so he had to come!

- If they don't like somethin', they let you know.

If you're moving too fast for them, they tell you to slow it down.

And then, just to see the interest.

- We had seen the performance last night at the Redlands Bowl, and Etta, [background fiddle music] who's normally a little reserved, got out of her seat, went up to the front and was dancing along with the other kids.

So, she really enjoyed the show and had asked if we could come back today to come to the workshop.

- Last night, they performed Irish dancing and it was good.

I'm like, "Can we come to the workshop?"

- [Valerie] We want the children that are there to experience the performance and the art that these wonderful performers do.

So, that sometimes means musical performance, dance, just showing them what their particular talent is.

Today, we worked with the step crew so they were able to demonstrate fiddling, Irish dance, which was so much fun for the kids.

- [Jon] In today's day and age, Ottawa Valley step dancing maybe isn't the coolest thing in the world.

It's so wonderful to see children in 2023 you know, take a liking to that.

You can see the elements of how the tradition grabs people even back hundreds of years ago when that interest was created in a young person to play the fiddle or to play piano, or to learn dance steps.

And, that never, ever goes away because it still grabs kids in our day and time.

So, that's wonderful.

- [Valerie] You know, when we do Children's Festival Workshops, we have a number of goals in mind and one of the first is that it's almost-- it's a bit intangible.

We wanna spark joy of arts participation in children.

- He went to the performance last night at the Redlands Bowl and he really enjoyed it.

His mom's danced your whole life so he's had a little bit of, you know, seen it, and he just had a ball last night.

- It was fun, but my mom did tap for a while.

So, I just get it from her.

- It was good.

I liked dancing.

It was fun to dance.

- She had a lot of fun.

She got up out of her seat.

She was doing some of the dance moves, learning how to shuffle, and-?

I don't know.

I could see that she was enjoying it so much so that she asked at the end of the performance if I would sign her up for Irish dance lessons.

- Parents love the Children's Festival Workshops.

Again, they just-- and they themselves often enjoy them quite a bit themselves.

- It looked like a lot of fun.

I could tell he was enjoying himself, and the leaders were interacting with the kids, which was nice.

- [Valerie] It's such a wonderful opportunity to have young people be able to interact with these artists.

They see them up on a stage, maybe at a main stage Bowl performance, but they don't have the opportunity to interact and engage with 'em.

But, at the children's workshops they do.

And, it just adds a whole 'nother dimension to their own arts engagement.

- [Diana] I thought Jon was so entertaining last night and he was just as entertaining [background fiddle music] in a smaller group with the kids.

I think he's funny.

I think he understands kids' sense of humor and he was really patient in teaching him the steps this morning.

So, thought he was really cool.

And then, the young ladies, I think, are an inspiration to other young women who have an artistic dream for their future to dance or play music.

So, that was exciting to see my daughter looking up to older girls who have danced and played music.

- [Jon] They had very good questions.

They weren't afraid to speak up and they-- we cram a lot of information because we only got a short time with them.

But, I just hope they walk away, first of all, with an interest in pursuing any form of dance or even making them think a little bit about music or art or anything artistic at all.

But, if they remember some of the information that they saw and heard there today, this afternoon, I'd be very grateful for that.

And, maybe their parents will have some you know, desire to get them into the arts.

- From there, I would like to perform in the Redlands Bowl.

- [Valerie] The other thing that we really want to do is spark creativity within children, to help them find that place in themselves where they can themselves create.

Maybe coming to do a dance program encourages them to go home, turn on some music, and create themselves and find the joy in that.

So, sparking creativity.

- [Diana] I feel really lucky to live in Redlands where the students, or kids, are exposed to different performances through the Redlands Bowl but then also have closer access to those performers at the community center where they can see them up close and learn from them what they are doing on stage for the whole community.

So, I think that's really cool.

I feel really lucky that we have a community center and that events like these are available to our kids.

- [Valerie] We also hope to build cultural awareness as children come to workshops and maybe experience world music or a genre of music that's different than they're used to hearing at home or at school.

We're broadening their cultural awareness.

And, what that does ultimately is build community.

And, that's part of, again, the mission of the Redlands Bowl: music for all, building community around the arts.

Our founder, Grace Stewart Mullen said when people gather around great music together, manmade boundaries disappear.

And, we think that can start at a very young age.

Just that wonderful arts engagement experience that builds community and art in our region and beyond.

♪ - Studies have revealed that children who participate in the arts have shown improved academic performance, a lower truancy rate, and have built stronger social interactions.

Just a few good reasons for our youth to engage in the arts in our region.

To learn more about the programs offered, visit their website at redlandsbowl.org Art education is sometimes underestimated and often the first subject in the classroom to be cut from a curriculum.

[background music] But, if we can all agree on the importance of the arts and engaging our youth in creative activities at an early age, the arts can and does have a positive effect on the student and the community we live in.

I'm Lillian Vasquez.

Thanks for watching and bye for now.

♪ [uplifting music] ♪ ♪ [music fades] - [Announcer] "Expressions of Art" is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.

Learn more at arts.ca.gov and the City of San Bernardino Arts and Historical Preservation Commission with its commitment to visual and performing arts organizations that enhances the culture and economic well-being of the community, and viewers like you.

Thank you.