PHOTO: Michoacán dance instructor visits Watsonville

Aldo Valenzuela Roman (standing, at right), a dance instructor from Michoacán, Mexico, leads members of the youth group, Estrellas De Esperanza, which is headed up by Ruby Vasquez. Roman was helping students learn traditional Mexican dances Thursday inside the Watsonville Center for the Arts. He said he was focusing on dances well known to indigenous people around his state. Many of such dances, he said, have European roots. “Bringing the maestro from Michoacán was a joint effort between Estrellas De Esperanza and Esperanza del Valle, the adult group directed by Janet Johns,” Vazquez said.