Café con Leche
Last night I saw students from all over campus dance in Café con Leche, a performance presented by the Vanderbilt Association of Hispanic Students.
This year, they had a story to connect all the dances so they called it West End Story (based off of West Side Story…just in case you didn’t get there on your own). Hipster Maria hits it off with “frat boy” Tony while rehearsing for Café con Leche, but their friends try to keep them apart. The story had some pretty hilarious jokes involving Chick-fil-a, fraternity formals, and “hipster central” Café Coco (in all seriousness, Café Coco is delicious and that’s where people meet the stars of Nashville…just saying).
Intermixed with the storyline were dances ranging from Bachata to Salsa to Mexican Folk. I had friends in Paso Doble and Merengue so those were probably my favorites, but all of the dances were really impressive. I know students have been rehearsing for months and it showed.
Another cool aspect of the performance was that the Capoeira Club made a guest performance. If you’re anything like me, you have no idea what Capoeira means, but I quickly figured out it involved dancing and martial arts. Members of the club would play instruments in the background and take turns doing these crazy one-on-one battles with flips and kicks and headstands. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what Capoeira means now.
Overall, it was really fun to see sorority sisters, study abroad friends, and random students from class get really into a latin dance they probably didn’t know last semester. All of the dancers got out of their comfort zone and I really respect them for it…which is why I think I might try to do one of the dances next year! Who knows? I’ll keep y’all updated.
