Fly Dance Company offered residencies while in Worthington

WORTHINGTON — Fly Dance Company performed Saturday evening with the Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra, but leading up to the concert, the dance company visited local schools and dance studios to offer hip-hop lessons.

Fly Dance is based in Houston, Texas, where they are always performing, but they also travel nationally and internationally to different communities.

Jorge Casco, executive director of Fly Dance, joined the company as an understudy in the late 1990s before entering his current position in 2013. He owns the company now with Chris Cortez and Adam Quiroz.

He said they love to travel to see all the different trends in different parts of the world.

“We go from a small town to a big city,” he said. “It’s the same, but the environment is different. Overseas is great because we get to share our American culture and go into different towns and do these cultural exchange programs. (We) bring the U.S. to them through hip-hop, so it’s an interesting take on how they receive and respond to everything we do out there.”

Aside from just performing, the dance company also teaches the arts through residencies. In Worthington, they visited the elementary, intermediate, middle and high schools as well as Worthington Christian School and other schools in the area.

They also made stops at The Dance Academy, Aspire Dance and the Center for Active Living.

“These residencies are important because we’re planting seeds,” Casco said. “A lot of these kids have no interest in hip-hop, especially in these rural areas. They have a perception of what hip-hop is or what they see on YouTube.”

He said within these residencies, they are able to dissect and see more of what makes up the culture, such as dance, art, musicians and poetry.

“What we’re talking about is the dance side of the culture, and it has technique,” he said. “It’s top rock, footwork, freezes and power moves and we give those examples and then get them (students) up dancing.”

There were five dancers who led the events. On Thursday, they visited with fifth graders at Worthington’s Intermediate School.

While doing an introductory dance, the students watched in amazement, giving ‘oo’s’ and ‘awes’ and screaming when the dancers spun on their heads. Afterwards, the dancers invited students up to learn some of the moves themselves.

One group learned top rock, using your upper body to dance. The next group size had increased greatly as the students became more comfortable and intrigued, they added on with footwork.

Other groups practiced freezing and power moves until they had put together an entire dance. They then allowed students to freestyle and many cartwheels and worms were performed.

“Being able to kind of work with all grade levels, connect with senior citizens, connect with the youth, that’s what flies,” Casco said. “We’re very proud of that because our founder was an educator for many years and she trained us to be able to come into these towns and not only just perform and do an awesome show, but to get into the community and plant those seeds.”

Fly Dance had performed in Worthington before, nine years ago. Casco remembers his time here and how “it was cold,” he said. He shared that this year, a high school student came up to them and showed them a picture from when they were here last time and she was just a little kid.

“We take pictures with a lot of fans,” Casco said. “But I remember actually taking that picture. We were at the dance studio at which we visited again this time around, so it was cool to see familiar faces and seeing these kids grow into young adults and the fact that they still remember us. It’s like you get to leave a lasting impression.”

He said the whole message Fly Dance wants to tell everybody is that love conquers all, believe in yourself, ignore the whispers in your head and that you can do anything you put your mind to.

“They used to tell us we weren’t going to be anything,” he said. “Now we’re inspiring the youth and they’re inviting us to come to these schools and everything, so you never know. You work hard… and the earth will reward you in that.”

The dancers from Fly Dance were Adam Quiroz, Jesse Magaña, Saray Ramirez, guest dancer Ramin Akhundov and his son Illai.

Ramirez joined the group in the fall of 2024 and has since been the only female dancing with them. She has been dancing for 18 years. “It’s a privilege and a blessing,” she said.

Magaña started performing at age 10, working with Fly Kids group with the original owner of Fly Dance, Kathy Wood. By 15, he was performing professionally.

Casco said there are challenges to being in a dance company, but just follow your dreams and be who you are destined to be, which is yourself. “Along the way, impact people and be kind. Push yourself to be a better person,” he said.

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