CULTURAL EXPOSURE DANCES BRING THE WORLD TO VALLEY RESIDENTS.

Byline: JOHAN MENGESHA Valley News

Wondering if there's more to summer in the San Fernando Valley than escaping the unbearable heat in one of its many climate-controlled shopping malls?

Try dancing -- to steps from all over the globe.

Whether you prefer dancing on your toes, on your heels or even with your belly, you'll find a place to show you the best moves.

Hi-Za Yoo, 57, of Chatsworth started learning Korean dance when she was 4 years old in her native Korea. She performed for foreign guests her father invited to their house.

She continued to dance and built an impressive resume in her native Korea as a dancer and musician, playing the gayageum, a traditional Korean string instrument. She studied at Seoul National University before moving to the U.S. in 1972.

What separates Korean dance from other Asian and European dances is the rhythm of the music and the steps. It is very difficult to learn the dances because everything has to be precise from head to toe, Yoo said.

``Whereas ballet is performed largely on the toes, Korean dance is executed starting from the heel,'' Yoo said. ``The predominantly triple nature of Korean rhythm is easily distinguishable from the double rhythm of Chinese and Japanese music.''

The dances are influenced by Buddhism and Confuciansim, and just like Korean architecture, Korean dance has no straight lines, Yoo said.

Because the movements are slow, they are not always popular with the younger students, which has led her to try innovative ways to make the dances fun for everyone.

``She is open to ideas that would make Korean dance interesting to the mainstream,'' said Merelika Shamash, one of Yoo's first students and one of the few non-Korean students coming to her Northridge studio.

Shamash, a Jewish woman of European and Middle Eastern descent, was born in India. She said she only comes to the studio sporadically, but has still learned five dances during the years she has studied under Yoo. What intrigued her about Korean dance was the grace, beauty and modesty it expressed, she said.

For those interested in a less structured style of dance, belly dancer Amara, 33, offers classes in her apartment in Encino several days a week. The students practice shimmies and other moves with their hips or shoulders moving in a circular motion parallel to the floor.

Amara has been belly dancing for 15 years and has taught classes for nine years.

``I just fell in love with the movement and it was something that felt really good for me physically,'' Amara said. ``It was something I was actually pretty good at.''

Belly dancing can be hard for people to learn for different reasons, Amara said.

``I have some people who have never danced and have a hard time learning to isolate (body parts) and figuring out what the movements are and how to incorporate those into their body,'' she said.

Amara's students come from all over the Valley and Los Angeles areas and she also teaches two classes at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

The ages of her students range from 20 to 60 years old.

The outfits worn during belly dance performances are called bedlahs, which are made of glass beads. Some dances also include finger cymbals called zils in Turkish, or sagat in Arabic, which are attached to the thumb and middle finger of each hand.

Even though belly dancing has been around in the U.S. since 1876, the perception of a belly dancer is often still inaccurate.

``There's definitely an image of a loose woman, a voluptuous woman, exotic, sexy, out to make a buck, out to steal your man,'' Amara said. ``That's something a lot of us fight against because Middle Eastern dance is not that. I try to shift (people's) perception of that image by being a really good dancer.''

When it comes to tango, there are few misconceptions surrounding the passionate Argentine dance.

People who take classes in Sherman Oaks at The Tango Room studio owned by Julie Friedgen, 60, and her 67-year-old husband, Angel Echeverria, have usually seen an advanced couple dance tango and then try to learn it themselves.

``When you start dancing tango, you start feeling emotions you didn't know you had,'' Friedgen said. ``The people say `oh, I've got to learn how to do that' and then they come and take tango (lessons).''

Passion is one of the key ingredients to dancing tango, Friedgen said.

``Then it kind of goes to the technique so that you can get back to the passion,'' she said.

Two of the dancers who take a beginners class are Tim Abell, 38, and his wife, Georgia, of Studio City. They said what they like most about tango is the way it connects a person with their partner.

Of course, there are difficult parts, too.

Being patient and trusting your partner is the hardest part of tango, Georgia said. ``As a woman, don't anticipate and don't try to lead,'' she said. ``Just let him do it.''

On Saturday nights, the studio turns into a tango club and Echeverria and Friedgen welcome dancers from all over to come dance into the early morning hours during an event called a milonga.

``We get 75 to 100 people coming to dance tango here on Saturday nights,'' Friedgen said.

She said they get people from almost every culture.

``One of the wonderful things about tango is that you can go to any city in the world and tango is there,'' she said. ``When you learn to dance tango, it opens up a world that you couldn't even imagine.''

A world plagued by gangs and stray bullets was what Javier Verdin had to enter every time he went to Las Palmas Park in San Fernando to teach his Mexican folkloric dance class. Today, however, there are no more gangs in the park.

``We have seen the transition of this park,'' said the 40-year-old instructor from Panorama City. ``It was infested with gangs, but we were here. We kept our practices and kept dodging bullets and we won the park back.''

Verdin said he used to paint over the graffiti covering the walls around the park. Finally, he said, the gangs realized that if they were going to keep tagging the walls, he was going to come back and paint over it again.

``One day they came and asked if they could help me, and I said yes,'' Verdin said. ``I gave them some brushes and rollers and we painted the whole park.''

The folkloric program, called Ballet Folkloric Ollin, was started in 1972 by Virginia Diediker. Verdin has been teaching classes at the park for 15 years. The program became very successful and developed into a professional dance company.

``These classes give the kids a chance to perform,'' Verdin said.

The classes are divided into an intermediate and a beginners group that practice on separate days. On Wednesdays, however, Verdin brings all 75 of them in for one big class. The students are anywhere from 5 to 91 years old, Verdin said.

``It's good for the older people because they stay healthy and they exercise,'' he said.

Verdin said Mexican folklore is unique because it enjoys a mixture of cultures. Influences from Japan to the Czech Republic can be traced in the music and dance of Mexican folklore.

Veronica Ruiz Velasco, 13, and Sandra Cardoza, 15, are two of Verdin's students in the beginners class. Velasco of Sylmar has danced since she was 4 years old and Cardoza of Pacoima since she was 9 years old.

``When I was young, they used to dance in my school. I always wanted to dance, so I started getting into it,'' Velasco said.

Cardoza said she did not know too much about all the activities at the park, but she really liked the Mexican music, so her mother brought her to the class.

``It's kind of hard,'' she said. ``But, it's fun.''

Verdin said he feels lucky and proud to be able to give the kids from the community an opportunity ``to see life from the eyes of the arts.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Veronica Ruiz Velasco, front pays close attention to teacher Javier Verdin during Mexican Folkloric class at Las Palmas Park in San Fernando.

(2 -- color) Amara instructs student Jennifer Barnett while doing a dance at her apartment in Encino.

(3 -- color) From left, Veronica Kang, Jane Chung, Tiffany Kim, Janet Yoo and Esther Hwang are set to perform Sam Go Moo, the Three Drum Dance at the Hi-Za yoo Korean dance Institute in Northridge.

Johan Mengesha/Valley News

(4 -- color) Tim Abell of Studio City and Sally Gofberg of Woodland Hills practice the tango at The Tango Room in Sherman Oaks.

Mark Kellam/Valley News