Dance and Art Funzies!!

Today was our first day as Leaders of the Day, and we made Clay Masks that are relevant to Dominican culture and its Mardi Gras tradition that was led by “Gato” or Dario Victoriano, who is a well-known and accomplished clay mask maker in the Dominican Republic. We also learned widely used dances of the Dominican Republic like Bachata and Merengue that was taught by Paul Rosado. We finished off our exciting and eventful day with well-earned ice cream and a group visit to the grocery store where we were allowed to get snacks of our choosing. Some of the things that we learned today were not only the connection between the importance of mask making to Dominicans and what the masks represent to the Community in their ties to Mardi Gras but also how to have fun while being creative artistically. Within our lessons with Paul, we learned how to loosen up, be energetic, and get out of our comfort zones to be able to enjoy the dances we learned with our group. What surprised us as leaders was how well everyone did with stepping out of their comfort zones and trying new things while also opening themselves up to their peers. We saw an amazing shift in the energy of our peers and are super proud and excited to see more of that energy come out with our future activities. Being Leader of the Day was definitely a new obstacle that we took on. It was a lot more responsibility than we expected, but our main objective was to watch out for our peers and make sure that all our peers were made comfortable and assisted when needed. Today was a success and we’re looking forward to many more!!.

The One And Only Ultimate Team,

Michaela & Aeven