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May is Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, and for the past three years, Kaiserslautern Middle School Teacher Filipina Baumgartner has been the coordinator of an after school activity – the Asian Dance Club.
Mrs. Baumgartner, a native Filipino, was influenced to create her own club, which teaches native dances from a variety of Asian cultures, by numerous requests by students and parents.
“I’m just in awe at all the diversity here in Kaiserslautern and I feel obliged to help share the Asian culture with our school and our community,” Mrs. Baumgartner said.
But unlike other extracurricular activities, Mrs. Baumgartner’s club is something unique.
“It’s not one of those clubs where you do things within the school subject areas,” she said. “This is a club that takes a lot of character and confidence and understanding to be able to learn about culture and share it with fellow students through the art of dance.”
This club is also very rigorous. They started practicing in January, four days each week to work on six different dances (Singkil, Pandango sa Ilaw, Itik Itik, a Hawaiian dance, a Thai dance and a Tahitian dance) that they intend to perform at Kaiserslautern Middle School’s Asian-Pacific Heritage Month Program. The program, also organized by Mrs. Baumgartner, will not only feature her dance class, but will also feature an Asian food sampling, an Asian fashion show and a presentation that will share information about Asian-Pacific trivia.
The program is scheduled for Tuesday at the Kaiserslautern High School Auditorium. There will be performances at 9:45 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.
