Like they say, once a jackrabbit, always a jackrabbit. That includes one of the new teachers at Poly, Luis Lira. He came here as a student, and now he is the dance teacher, taking over for Cynthia Negrete, who retired last year.
He’s been choreographing dance since he was 14 years old, but teaching dance since he was in college. His favorite style is jazz. He was inspired to become a dancer by the creative connection he had to music. We all have been inspired to become what we want to be in the future, but for him, he said, “I have always known I wanted to be in the teaching field or to be working in high schools. So my love for dance and teaching just kinda merged together over the years.”
This is Mr.Lira’s first year teaching at Poly High School. He said, “It feels great to return home and be able to give back to a community that really fostered my own dance background and my dance experience and ability. And it feels good to give back to a place that gave so much to me as a dancer.”
Over the years, everyone has a quote they heard or have been told that sticks with them. Mr. Lira’s is this: “If you don’t have haters, you’re doing something wrong.” That’s a strong quote. A tip that he would give to his students is “Everybody starts somewhere.”
Now, for his first year here at Poly, he and his dancers had their first dance show of this school year. He said, “From the feedback I got from people in the audience and family members and friends who came to watch the show, I think they were able to see that our dancers are really putting their heart and soul on there and that was a big complement that I received and they looked like they were having fun and they look like they were enjoying themselves and looked like they wanted to be there.”
That show was amazing. The music was so good, and the dancers really looked like they enjoyed themselves out there. At the end of that night, Lira said, “My favorite thing that night was the fact that I felt there was an overall sense of students feeling proud of what they did, and for me, as a dance director thats my job to make sure that students feel safe, comfortable, and confident on stage.” Well, that night was a great show for him and his dancers. Can’t wait to see what they do for their next dance show later on in the year.