Karina Camarillo: Transcript

Ballet folklorico
Close Window

My name is Karina Camarillo, born, raised in Moline, Illinois. Lived all over, from Elgin, Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa and back to Moline. Currently, the apprentice for Arnulfo Camarillo and the Quad Cities Ballet Folklorico. [music]

We started dancing when we were five. I started dancing, and my older brother started dancing. And we started dancing because the parents wanted to get this, get this going, actually. And we started, and it was just a group of eight: eight boys, eight girls. And we had a lot of siblings; we had two sisters, and then me and my brother, and then two brothers. It was just kind of family friends that we had, that we started. And it just kind of continued.

I didn’t like it, I wasn’t any good. I was always the smallest;, for the longest time, I was always the smallest, smallest in age and smallest in stature. So I always got pushed around, no. [stop] We had one real tall boy that always wanted to dance with me just because he wanted to fling me around a lot. But so, you know, I didn’t start enjoying dancing, oh, probably until I was a little bit older, maybe eight or nine. That’s when I really, really started enjoying it, when I really started putting my heart into it. [music]

For my fifteenth birthday, in the Mexican culture, when a girl turns fifteen they have a big old shindig. I decided that I wanted to go down to Mexico to study dance. And my dad and my mom actually loved the idea. They sent me down there. And I had private lessons for approximately two months from June of 1992 to August, I was down there. I studied at the University of Guadalajara with a private instructor. I came back and that’s when I really started, I guess, taking a leadership role in the Ballet Folklorico. I was about 15. I had a lot of people that were older than me and a couple of people that were younger than me. But, like my dad says, it’s always been natural for me, I guess, to tell people what to do. So, I guess it’s working out okay. I haven’t had any complaints. I don’t know, I haven’t had any complaints as far as I know. [music]

I continued doing it up until about 1997. By that time I was actually at the University of Iowa, as a sophomore. So at that time I was just, you know, too busy with schooling. And I really couldn’t come home every weekend and, you know, make the practices and then try to make the performances as well. So, I technically retired back in 1997, from dancing.

Now, with the directing, and the administering of the group, it’s more of a situation where not only do I have to talk to dancers, but I also need to be able to communicate with the dancers, their parents, and then the people outside. I make a lot of the phone calls and return a lot of the phone calls for people that, you know, want us to perform. So, it’s more of a—I guess a public relations thing that I’m learning to do.

The group that, you know, I’m currently working with, which is the younger group that we have, is actually—. You know, they’re really good. They completely surprised me. They started in September of last year and by November, you know, they had a state down, five different dances. But it was the way I wanted it down. We did all the steps first; I’m very picky when it comes to steps. And then I incorporate, you know, the choreography after that. And then after that we work on their appearance. I like having kids learn the steps, know the steps and then, once they’re comfortable doing that, move them on. Actually, it’s been pretty effective. [music]

I’m very strict. I’m very strict, but see, here’s the thing. I went to college, and I graduated with a degree in criminology. So, my background is in law enforcement, and being in the sociology classes that I’ve taken and psychology classes, my—the way I get—that I’ve always been better at getting across to people, is by being firm and strict and consistent.