By Jessica Johnson
On February 22, 2017 Gina Garcia, educator, dancer, and creator of Worldanz, was formally recognized as an inspiration to our community. Garcia is one of five local artists being honored at this year’s Gail Rich Awards held at the Rio Theater. The event is free and open to the public.
The Gail Rich Award winners are nominated by the community, chosen by longtime Santa Cruz Sentinel entertainment editor Wallace Baine, and photographed by award-winning photographer Shmuel Thaler. This years’ other honorees are writer and Executive Director of the Young Writer’s Program, Julia Chiapella; sculptor Michael Leeds; actor and Artistic Director of Santa Cruz Shakespeare Mike Ryan; and musician Patti Maxine.
I caught up with Gina recently and asked her what it was about dance and teaching that meant the most to her. “I just love people,” she said. “The community experience, the group energy, it just makes me happy.”
Energy, community and connection are themes that come up frequently when talking with Garcia who was born and spent her early years in Guatemala. Garcia explained that the Guatemalan culture was “very social” and as a teen she had a lot of freedom to spend time with her friends.
An early creative influence was her great uncle who was an artist and took her on as an apprentice of sorts, teaching her art technique and color theory from a very young age. At the same time, she dabbled in gymnastics and dance, until at age 16, she moved to the United States with her American mother.
While living in the U.S. was quite different from life in Guatemala, Garcia found a home at the San Francisco School of the Arts where she found a supportive home in the art department. She also began a love affair with energetic dance forms such as Afro-Haitian dance. Ultimately, Garcia dedicated herself to the study of art and enrolled at Boston University, where she ran more than she danced and spent a great deal of time working on art installations.
As is the case for many creative types, her time away from dance took its toll on Garcia’s soul, and she found herself depressed and yearning to return to the West Coast — specifically Santa Cruz. “I was going through a very hard time, “she recalled, “and every time I drove into Santa Cruz I would feel instantly relieved and happy…the cloud would lift.”
It was an easy decision, then, for Garcia to transfer to UCSC to continue her studies, eventually receiving her degree in Fine Arts and spending a great deal of time also studying psychology, and cultural anthropology. She worked as a SPECTRA artist, studied [the Brazilian martial art] Capoeira and continued to run, enjoying the high intensity work out it gave her.
Then she had the idea that she wanted to combine what she had been studying – art, dance, psychology, anthropology, with how she had been moving — intensely and intuitively. “Movement is about joy,” she says. “It should be pleasurable.”
Thus, the idea for Worldanz, which had been floating around in her mind for years, was formed. She began teaching in a small studio in Soquel in 2008 and offered free classes to get the word out. Garcia recalls that at the time, “Ten people was a full class.”
Today a full class has 60 people, and Garcia teaches seven days a week from UCSC to Watsonville and points in between. The Worldanz experience is a high-energy, anaerobic workout bringing in dance styles from around the world, including West-African, Afro-Haitian, Dancehall, Samba, and Bollywood, to mention a few.
Garcia has also begun to train others to become Worldanz teachers, with 14 people currently certified and her fourth training underway. Unlike many dance and fitness certifications, the Worldanz teacher training lasts nine months and insures each dance element is taught with integrity to its origin.
Ultimately, Garcia wants teachers and students alike to feel “ecstatic when they are dancing, to lose themselves and let go without being self-conscious.”
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Learn more about Gina Garcia and Worldanz and view class schedules at www.Worldanz.com.