Meet Manuel Vizcarra, Jr | Founder & Artistic Director, Tradición Dance Company

We had the good fortune of connecting with Manuel Vizcarra, Jr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Manuel, we’d love to hear more about your end-goal, professionally.
Tradición Dance Company was started by me in 2010 with the initial goal of evolving the art of Mexican folklore into something that not only represented our culture from the past but also our culture in the present times. My goal with Tradición Dance Company is to provide professional dance instruction to children, youth and adults of our community. to enrich them with skills that would help them become better dancers and well rounded individuals by being responsible for the art they create while performing. I have also been able to successfully teach my dancers history about what they are learning and how it ties our traditions in Mexico. The end goal for Tradición Dance Company is to make it a company that provides opportunities not only for our students to learn but our very own dancers to become instructors and eventually run the organization passing it down from generation to generation. At the end of my dance career i would like to leave a legacy of a group that created its own set of instructors that continue to pass on their teachings to the younger generations.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It is definitely a hard being a healthcare professional and cultural activist with my dance group. The benefit of my job is that they both involve community organizations and involvement with individuals who support the community with different resources. My dance group has been a integral part of my professional growth as it has supported me financially and professionally in meeting other professionals within the community. My professional career in healthcare involves me supporting the community with resources and the needs they are seeking. Being in touch with the community prior to coming into my professional career was a huge benefits and has supported me in providing excellent resources for my city. Thankfully I am able to balance both my professional career and my artistic career as in many ways they are alike and have similar audiences.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I have many favorite places in the city one of the main ones is downtown Los Angeles. Downtown LA can be a rural location to take someone for the first time visiting but it also provides an essence of what Los Angeles has to offer within its cultural diversity. I love that there is artistic things to do and also cultural events including historical landmarks. There is multiple dining options from oriental foods to Mexican foods and even foods from other countries. In my eyes downtown Los Angeles is a perfect location for someone who wants to absorb a little bit of what LA has to offer.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout is strongly dedicated to my mother. She is the one who started this legacy by registering me into a dance company at an early age and always being dedicated to making sure we made it to rehearsal and that we had the appropriate costumes and gear for our performances. Mexican folklorico can be an expensive activity because of all of the costumes and accessories required but she always made sure we had what we needed. Till this day she supports our company and the families with anything they may need for the students to succeed and provide a great performance. i believe she understands the satisfaction as a parent to see your child shinning on stage.

Website: www.tradiciondc.com

Instagram: dancerpants_ tradicion_dc

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mannyvizcarra

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tradiciondc www.facebook.com/mannyvizcarrajr