Ballet Folklorico Huehuecoyotl explores roots on stage today

Ballet Folklorico Huehuecoyotl will perform "Raices/Roots" at 3 p.m. today in the Elgin Community College Visual and Performing Arts Center's Blizzard Theatre, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

With its dazzling costumes and insistent rhythms, the company promotes and shares the beauty and culture of Mexico through the art of folkloric dance. With over 80 members, the group is one of six in-residence ensembles at the ECC Arts Center.

The program goes farther back in time to the older traditional dances, bypassing the more well known folkloric dances that are commonly performed. It includes several works by the Maestro Rafael Zamarripa Castaneda, director of the Ballet Folklorico de la Universidad de Colima, including "Angeles Prehispanicos," a creation based on the popular pre-Hispanic angel paintings by painter Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo.

Other Zamarripa works presented are "Jalisco Antiguo," which returns to the humble beginnings of folkloric dance; and "Zacatecas," which demonstrates the popular cuadrillas and Cuban habaneras which were the rage with the silver miners of the time.

Other traditional dances include the "Danza de Negritos," a ritual dance practiced in the state of Veracruz, along with a representation of a real Fandango Veracruzano.

"Danza de Pardos," the dance of the bird, has the children's group representing a ritual dance practiced in the state of Zacatecas. Contemporary dances to be performed include "Chilenas," from the state of Guerrero; and dances from "Colima," done to the well-known music of the mariachi, which has become representative of Mexico.

Tickets at the door are $20 for adults; $17 for seniors; and $14 for children 10 and under. Tickets are available at www.elgin.edu/arts. To purchase tickets by phone, call (847) 622-0300.