On Saturday, Oct. 18, The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts hosted its annual October workshop, Dia de Los Muertos: Mexico’s celebration of life. The LCVA hosts three family workshops a year, and last Saturday’s Dia de los Muertos workshop was a big hit with local families.
Weeks of planning, on the part of LCVA faculty, and help from student volunteers, preceded the Dia de los Muertos workshop, contributing greatly to the success of the event. In addition, faculty at LCVA requested a performance from the Longwood Company of Belly Dance, a student-led campus organization.
The Longwood Company of Belly Dance strives to incorporate the traditional dances and artistic expressions of eastern cultures with western, modern and lyrical dance. This being a combination that better translates to a modern American college audience.
For the Dia de los Muertos workshop, the company performed “The Dance of the Little Old Men,” adding elements of Mexican dance to their routine. The dance was simplified to basic steps to allow children to imitate the moves.
Dia de los Muertos is a holiday which relies heavily on art; for this reason, faculty and volunteers prepared arts and crafts stations such as tin painting and sugar skull decorating. These stations gave children the chance to participate in authentic Dia de los Muertos artistic traditions.
Student volunteers ran a pumpkin carving station and a face-painting station as well. The bright and enthusiastic faces of faculty, volunteers and belly dancers sported Dia de los Muertos face art throughout the day. In this style, the face is painted to mimic the look of a skull, however, the desired effect is aesthetic beauty and creative design, not scariness. The children were excited to have their faces painted as well, by artistically talented student
volunteers. Every part of the planning that went into
the Dia de los Muertos workshop came together on Saturday to present an organized and exciting event. The workshop was very well supervised and managed. Also, faculty members and volunteers made the experience all the more exciting for local children.
The Longwood Company of Belly Dance’s performance and participation brought another artistic dimension to the event, and added an exciting opportunity for children.
Be sure not to miss the company’s end-of- semester performance on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 3:00 p.m. in the Jarman auditorium.
Also, if you are a Longwood student, you should consider volunteering to help at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. Your time there can count as service hours and the LCVA is always appreciative of volunteers, both with and without artistic talent.
