Since she was four years old, Vanessa Sanchez has been dancing. What began as ballet, lyrical, and tap classes grew into training at Dance Mission and eventually led her to Brava Theater \u2014 her current artistic home in San Francisco\u2019s Mission District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Mission is the community that gave me a voice as an artist,\u201d Sanchez says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it wasn\u2019t until college that her relationship with dance truly changed. At San Francisco State, she enrolled in a class rooted in the African diaspora, taught with live drumming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt changed my entire life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that class, Sanchez began studying the shared history between tap and Afro-Caribbean dance. She discovered that Son Jarocho \u2014 a traditional dance form from southern Veracruz, where her family is from \u2014 blends Indigenous and African traditions with Spanish influence, shaped by colonization. She was drawn in by the intricate footwork, and by the stories layered within the rhythms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n