Eddy Villalta Guillen: Arts Integration as a Tool for Life

The Discipline of Ballet

At first glance, you know that Eddy Villalta Guillen, or Coach Eddy as he is sometimes called, is a professional dancer. His posture, his bearing, and his presence all let us know he is someone who has performed for many years. And indeed, he has taught students at every level, including university. Currently, he is the coach for the YACS Kate Middleton Ballerinas. He rehearses after school with the group and the effects of his hard work and demands are outstanding. 

I attended a recital he held as part of the Free Family Day at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art on Saturday, November 11 to witness and photograph him and the ensemble at work. To my joy and surprise, as I walked in the dancers were demonstrating their practice routine to the audience of caregivers, teachers, friends, families and museum staff. In doing this Eddy revealed the hard work of ballet performance that most people don’t see. Only after this longer part of the showcase did he reveal the dancers in a wonderful and dynamic piece of choreography set to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, 1st Movement.

Afterwards, I overheard Eddy talk to one family about making sure their ballerina, who is overly flexible, got enough rest and did her sit ups and push ups. Her mother agreed that this was necessary so that she could learn to control her body in its extreme flexibility for the rigors of ballet. His afterschool program is by audition only, and parents have to attend a mandatory meeting and sign a contract to be part of the ballet ensemble.

Eddy believes, and research supports him, that the rigor of ballet practice has led to several of his students getting scholarships to universities, becoming doctors, all going to college.  Three of his first group of students at Kate Middleton were selected to attend the prestigious Alvin Ailey Dance Company Summer Intensive, and parents still call him for advice. These relationships last and, as he says, the “discipline and work ethic [of ballet] makes you successful and builds tools for life.”

Called Coach Eddy because he taught PE for nine years, now his day job is being the RP/SEL Coordinator for the YACS network. As part of his work as coordinator, he created an organization called H.O.L.A. (Hispanic Organization of Louisiana) where he makes sure the Latinx students at Kate Middleton, Crocker and Little YACS are nourished in their language and culture.

Though he was virtually unknown in the US, for years Eddy Villalta Guillen was the principal dancer for the National Ballet Company of Costa Rica, also working in movies, tv, commercials, directing, and producing for a network. He came to the US for an international ballet competition in Mississippi as the principal dancer for the National Dance Company of Costa Rica. But after an unplanned but successful stint with both Ballet Magnifica! and Ballet Mississippi, the former jet setter decided to shift his life a bit.

Eddy began working with Yala as a teaching artist doing residencies and eventually got certified in Louisiana Wolf Trap methods. Following this training he became an arts integration specialist and attended a few national meetings representing YALA, eventually training teaching artists on classroom management, and understanding the application of the art form as part of the school's curriculum.

After many successful residencies with YALA when the YALA opened its first charter school at Kate Middleton, he was a natural fit. Like many artists who currently work with YALA or YACS, Eddy’s experience offers us an understanding of the foundational part of what YALA and YACS are now. Not only that, but the work of Eddy that he enjoys most continues to evolve with YALA.

A Gentle Framework: Restorative Practices and Social Emotional Learning

One of the most valuable tools Eddy passes on to the students in his care is that of restorative practice (RP) and social emotional learning (SEL), something he began training for beginning about 7 years ago.

I asked him what somatic practices look like in his afterschool dance rehearsals, and he explained it well, describing how he talks with the dancers about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. Then together they make some of the rehearsal rules based on this foundation of consensus. He considers himself a guide who as much as possible allows the dancers to fix their own problems within a gentle framework where children learn to take care of themselves in and outside of school.

Within this framework, they learn to self evaluate, give and take feedback, do yoga and affirmations, and discuss how successful they have been at everything they have learned, as well as what they need to improve upon.

To his surprise, his ballerinas often practice together in an atmosphere of respect, during recess, what they learn during their after school rehearsals. They teach each other the and then movements they learned, self analyze and critique, switching roles, giving and taking corrections. Eddy knows that when dancers are learning to do something new, eventually the body will click and the kinetics will connect over time. As he says, “All of a sudden they can do it.”

Eddy brings this same energy and practice to H.O.L.A., an organization that he created as RP/SEL Coordinator to touch the Latin community in the YACS charter schools.

H.O.L.A. :Built to Touch the Latin Community:

For YALA and the YACS demographics tell us an important story about our shared communities. Crocker, our Orleans Parish site, has currently a 33.5% latino/hispanic enrollment rate. And our combined hispanic/latino enrollment for YACS' Jefferson Parish schools is 17.6%.

And within these communities of cultures, united by language, here again Coach Eddy employs his unique skill sets to ensure that students have respectful interactions with each other about culture, language, nation, ethnicity, and customs.

The organization, the Hispanic Organization of Louisiana, came about as a process of questioning how to celebrate the heritage of many people, preserving and passing on the language to the children. Along with pride. Staff, students and the families YALA and YACS serve have roots in Honduras, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, among other nationalities!

In three of the YACS schools, he meets weekly by grade level in a circle where students can share their feelings, in Spanish, both with other heritage Spanish speakers and their invited guests. Then, as he says, “They make a circle and talk about it.” In this space as with the classroom and rehearsals, Eddy uses circles to help students learn to communicate with each other, share knowledge and experiences, and resolve issues through respect.

Often students at the meetings are in different grade levels and Spanish speaking students might teach their friends one or two words in Spanish, older kids read to the younger ones in Spanish. And of course everyone gets excited about futbol! The group sponsors other activities for the school community as well, including a graduation celebration in Spanish.

Eddy is dedicated to this invaluable holistic approach and practice to learning as central to this tool for life. When thinking about his approach and how it can be used in work with young people, Eddy says, “I start with the heart: self care and self esteem–teachers are the priority also, so teachers can help with the emotional development of students.”

He now brings the discipline of ballet, especially to young dancers of color, hoping to change the complexion of professional ballet by training a diverse community of dancers.