Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Girl, 7, wins folklorico dance honors, academy gears up to thank businesses

Haley Wachdorf News-Bulletin Staff Writer; hwachdorf@news-bulletin.com

Belen Cleo Velasquez has her passions, like any 7-year-old kid. She loves french fries, her rock and marble collections and the rock group Evanescence. But her first love is dancing. And now, she's got the trophy to prove it.

Cleo, 7, has Down Syndrome, and although her disability makes speaking difficult, Suzanne Lattig, her mother, said it only takes a few notes of music for her daughter to communicate her joy in dancing.

Two years ago, Lattig enrolled her daughter in dance classes at S & A Dance Academy in Belen after Sadie and Andrea Telles, owners of the studio and next-door neighbors to Lattig, began teaching Cleo steps from Mexican folk or "folklorico" dances.

"She loves the attention," Lattig said. "She just loves it. She used to go next door, and she would love to see them (Sadie and Andrea) dance, and they made her dresses so she could dance, so I just put her in dance classes since she liked it."

Cleo has danced in plenty of parades and recitals in Valencia County, but Lattig said it was a little more difficult to think about her daughter competing in front of hundreds of people at the 13th annual Folklorico Festivalof North Texas in Dallas, Texas, in April. But Cleo wanted to go, and once her grandmother and Jake and Andre's Restaurant agreed to sponsor her, there was nothing to stop her.

"I was really nervous," Lattig said. "I don't think she was. She knew what she had to do, and she did it, and she did a great job. She was the center of attention there. We were a little worried that she might freak out because it was just a lot more people, it wasn't like a small-city thing. But she did great."

Cleo, the first dance student with a disability to perform in the festival, danced in a duet and a larger group, but it was her solo dance performance that won her first place in her age division. According to her teacher, Sadie Telles, Cleo was the calmest member of the group from Belen when her name was called during the awards ceremony.

"We were so happy, we were jumping up and down and crying and getting all emotional," she said. "She was really happy and went out there and had a lot of fun. She took the award home and took it to her school and showed all her friends."

As a result of Cleo's performance, which Lattig said had the usually stone-faced judges smiling and audience members clapping along with the music, a new category for children with disabilities has been opened at the festival. Lattig said she is pleased that her daughter opened the door for others, but the main benefit of the experience is the happiness dancing brings to her daughter.

"She's always asking about going to dance," she said. "She'll say 'Dance?' and I say 'Sorry, not until Friday,' but she loves it. If Friday were every day, she would love it."

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