Director- Jose F. Jaimes

Ballet Folklorico Tierra Caliente was founded October 6, 2004 as an official program of Youth Opportunities Network under the direction of Jose F. Jaimes. Using cultural dance as the focus, this program helps guide, discipline and motivate youth into becoming leaders of others. Through the art of Ballet Folklorico, members experience the richness of their heritage and grow with confidence and expertise and soon become performers in front of both smalll and large audiences. Along with dance education, the students learn to appreciate the Mexican arts, culture, tradition, and history.

Tierra Caliente seeks to perform professionally as a confident group with a strong structure and committed leaders. Members are challenged to learn and mos importantly, share what they have learned with others in their commnity. With love and pride as motivation, our dance students share a part of their culture with all the people. Their sharing connects them with family and a life they, themselves, have not been able to fully identify with as they grew up in the american way of thinking and living. Tierra Caliente is able to take them back to a time when dance was the connection between the past and the present. Through folklorico dance they learn that even the simplest gesture or movement tells a story as an artful expression of a rich culture, which today is truly one of the most unique, majestic and colorful in the world.