Mr. Ballado takes over Dance classes first period

Jive, salsa, and fox-trot with Ballado this year in his first period social dance class, offered to all students as an art credit. Head of the Language Department, Mr. Ballado also has extensive experience working with the visual arts as the coordinator of MEChA’s Ritmo Latino for the past five years. He felt that he was “most-qualified” for the position in the absence of another dance teacher to take Mrs. Jackson’s place for the year. In Dance, he plans to “connect to all the rhythms,” such as hip-hop, Latin dance, Bhangra, classical, tap, and more.
The class has already enrolled eighty-six students, a bit more than the usual growth of students in every class we have seen in the past years due to budget cuts. Dance students usually perform in two recitals a year, which Ballado hopes to change by opening up new opportunities to perform.

“They do work hard and they need an audience to showcase it,” Mr. Ballado said. “We’re willing to help out clubs in other events, and, in return, they can help us out,” he hoped, mentioning Ritmo Latino and IndoPak’s Dil Se.

Ballado may only be teaching the class for this year, but we have high hopes for him and we know he will get Irvington dance students to really “feel the music,” as he always says. It seems Irvington can expect to see the dance classes finally reaching out to different styles and cultures that represent the entire school.