This central Fresno high school will open its doors to 2024 Danzantes Unidos Festival

The country’s largest gathering of Mexican folkloric dancers, shunned earlier this month by the Clovis school district, has found a home in central Fresno.

The 45th edition of the Danzantes Unidos Festival will be held at McLane High School, once the official paperwork is completed. An agreement was reached earlier this week after festival organizers took a virtual tour of the 64-year-old school that has enjoyed a recent resurrection in sports and visibility.

“I think it’s a great opportunity because a lot of our kids come from low-income families, so they don’t get the opportunity to spend money to go to festivals or go out of Fresno for performances,” said Christina Reynaga, who instructs Ballet Folklórico Los Montañeses de McLane.

Festival organizers, who expect up to 1,500 folkloric dancers for the March 21-23 workshops, had to scramble for a location after Clovis Unified officials said Clovis West could not accommodate the size of the festival.

Fresno has hosted the festival 16 times, including the last nine.

María Luisa Colmenárez, president of Danzantes Unidos, said the organization was swamped with calls and messages from the Fresno area suggesting another location for the festival. She said McLane might host the workshops this year and in 2025, but that the organization will be open to other possibilities.

A winery owner even offered his location that can hold 3,000 people, but Colmenárez said the festival and its workshops aren’t designed for such a venue.

Fresno Pacific was considered, but it lacked the 45-50 classrooms necessary for the workshops. Locations in Fowler, Bakersfield and Merced were also pitched.

“It was just a really good vibe to know that people cared,” said Colmenárez, referring to the reaction to a Fresno Bee/Vida en el Valle report last week about the festival’s problems.

A personal visit to McLane will be done soon so that organizers can determine what classrooms can be converted for workshop use with plywood flooring to protect the floor.

Colmenárez has started to contact potential workshop instructors. Festival registration, which normally starts at Thanksgiving, will open in January, she said.

The festival, according to organizers, has an economic impact of about $460,000 in the area. The school district gets about $20,000 for expenses, and the school’s folkloric dance group about $5,000.

That is money, said Reynaga, that can really be used by a dance program that is short on funds. However, hosting the workshops is much more than the money, she said.

“It’s a lovely layout. It’s pretty clean. It’s really nice,” said Colmenárez of McLane. “I think we’re going to be in a good place.”

McLane vice Principal Ramiro Terán, who led the virtual tour, “was really enthusiastic,” said Colmenárez, a lecturer at San José State.

The festival has a working history with Fresno Unified, so the application to use McLane has been relatively easy, said Colmenárez.

Supporting Los Montañeses will be key, she said. Colmenárez was not aware the school’s folkloric program was still alive because she hadn’t seen its dancers in many years. The program recently got mirrors that are a must for instruction.

McLane: “We jumped at the opportunity”

“We’re really excited about it,” said McLane Principal Brian Wulf. “It’s pretty neat for us.”

Wulf said the school welcomes “anything that has to do with cultural relevance. We jumped at the opportunity.”

Reynaga, who began folkloric dancing when she attended Fresno High, has been a festival workshop instructor. She concentrates on elementary school students and teaches them dances from Jalisco and Hidalgo.

The festival is more than showing off the school, she said.

“Having something come to them and them experiencing the unity of all these dancers will be pretty impactful for them,” said Reynaga, who became aware that the festival was looking for a place.

Fresno Arts Council President Lilia Chávez put the organizers in touch with the school.

“We came to an agreement that this would be a good opportunity for our students, especially our folkloric group because they have never been a part of it in the past,” said Reynaga. “We’ve had a lot of financial struggles where we can’t directly spend the money to send kids to workshops.

“But having this opportunity and having the workshops come to them is pretty amazing.”

Reynaga said she and her student dancers are ready to support the festival and workshops.

Colmenárez has said the festival is not wedded to Fresno. She would like to have the festival in the Bay area closer to where she is based.

Clovis West approval got denied

Festival organizers thought Clovis West would host this year after that school’s officials said they would be happy to have Danzantes Unidos return to the northeast Fresno school. However, district officials denied use of the facilities, saying that the event would create problems with classrooms.

They said the workshops could be held outdoors, but festival organizers ruled that out of the question.

Colmenárez said a Jan. 11 meeting with Clovis Unified officials is on the calendar in hopes that a district school can be used in the future.