Silva (far right) and Meza (front row, center) with attendees of “Bailanda a través del dolor”
SXU Cougar Scholars
On Jan. 28, SXU Cougar Scholars (formerly known before Aug. 2025 as SXU Scholars Sin Límites) hosted an event titled “Bailando a través del dolor,” Spanish for “Dancing through the pain,” in which students were taught how to dance bachata, a style of dance originating in the Dominican Republic.
The event was lead by Cougar Scholar Peer Mentor Arlene Silva, who said that the purpose of the event was to foster community and allow students a chance to relieve their worries in our current political climate through dance.
“The purpose of the event was to relieve some stress with all that is going on in Chicago right now with the Latino community. It was just kind of a way to help students cope with being a student in this era we’re going through.” Silva shared. “This area of Chicago has gone through a lot of marginalized attacks, and I think the purpose of the event was to show students how to cope with things like this in a way that they normally don’t do, because students nowadays don’t really go out to dance.”
Professional bachata dancer and instructor Jocelyn Meza taught the dance, while Silva and all students in attendance took instruction from her.
“[Meza] is a national, competitive dancer,” Silva explained. “She has danced competitively in a lot of national competitions. She won first place recently in a dance competition in New York, and then she came to do my event.”
According to Silva, Meza gave attendees a rundown of the basics of bachata, then tailored the session more towards teaching Dominican bachata.
While bachata originated in the DR, it has spread around the world and changed from its original form.
Meza concluded the session teaching attendees how to do a bachata combo. There was a turnout of about twenty students, according to Silva, all of which are not pictured above.
Silva said that this event was a great opportunity for students who don’t normally get the chance to go out and dance to do so, also noting that, while the event was centered around a form of Latin American dance, the event was open to everyone, and felt so.
Silva recounts her feelings about how the event went: “It was kind of like a workshop where we just kind of struggled to learn the dance, because even I struggled. I’ve been dancing for years, but I haven’t danced in a while. Like I said, this is something that students like me that are busy, [don’t get to do]. I was sweating, everybody was sweating, and it was a good event. We were all moving our bodies, and it felt like it wasn’t just for Latinos, as well–this was an inclusive event.”
Silva believes this inclusivity was important, noting that “it was beneficial for students to realize and to see what is happening in different communities and be exposed to the truth of many students who don’t talk about it.”
Poster for “Bailando a través del dolor”
SXU Cougar Scholars
**Correction: “orchestrated” in paragraph two changed to “lead”**
**Correction: “and Meza (front row, center)” added to photo caption; formatting of photo captions fixed; paragraph six split after first sentence**