Clap, Clap, Stomp! The first rule in learning Flamenco dancing is to find the rhythm. Gloria de Jerez taught VWC students the basic steps to one of Spain’s oldest traditions last week in Boyd Dining Center. Jerez, born in Andalucia, Spain, came to Virginia Wesleyan to share her talent and teach the beauty of Flamenco dancing. Raised by a family of dancers, she has traveled around the world, teaching, performing and choreographing. She has performed with numerous world famous dance companies. Today she is the director of Flamenco Vision, a traveling dance company in which she and 9 other dancers give performances. Jerez also gives bilingual lectures and classes at Old Dominion University and Governer’s School of Arts in Norfolk. Students must be strict with themselves to learn the true dance of Flamenco. "Flamenco is passion," she said. She instructed the students, "Feel the music, don’t just move to it."

After going over each step individually, she showed the students how it looked when all the steps were combined. She swayed the ruffled skirt and stomped to the rhythm with grace. She danced with flawless precision and power, amazing every student as they clapped for her 30-second performance. Then the group then tried the routine together. After stumbling through a few times, it slightly resembled the Spanish dance. Yvonne Henkel, a friend of a VWC student, was impressed. "This is so hard," she said, "but when she showed us how it looks, it was awesome." Flamenco lessons by Jerez are just a fraction of what VWC has to offer its students in the way of intercultural events. Leilani Atangan, Coordinator of Intercultural Programs at VWC, promised many more culture events like these in the future. "I want to bring cultural awareness through the arts," Atangan said.

Atangan, who calls herself a "cultural diversity cheerleader" because of her own ethnically diverse background, said that she thinks people learn more about a culture through arts, music and food. "Cultural awareness is very important," she said. This year VWC is offering more cultural events to educate students through the Office of International and Intercultural Programs. In the next few weeks there will be events surrounding Native American, African American, German, and Asian cultures. If you would like to learn about or participate in upcoming cultural call the Office of International and Intercultural Programs at 455-3279.

"Cotton the fabric of our lives." Ring a bell? This slogan, a jingle known to most Americans, played a part in the theme of Nick Bottis’ most recent art showing, titled "High Cotton: Painting of the Rural South." The security guard held his art show on Tuesday, Oct. 9 in the Hofheimer Library Gallery. "Cotton is my favorite material and I am absolutely fascinated with cotton fields," the artist said. He even had a cotton blossom pinned to his shirt to echo the theme of the show. Bottis took his curiosity to the road when trying to decide what theme he would follow for his newest repetoir. Although he walked in May, Bottis graduated from Virginia Wesleyan in the winter of 1997. Graduating from college and receiving his masters in Visual Arts followed working for the Navy for 22 years, being married for 27 years, and painting for 16 years. Bottis had to go to great lengths as an art student. Some might question why Bottis’ paintings about cotton fields and ladybugs and barns are interesting, but if one was to look at Bottis’ finished product, they would then understand. He traveled to North Carolina and along the Eastern Shore to get images in his head of what he might want to paint.

"Flooded Field," Bottis favorite painting, was created after Bottis had visited a farm in North Carolina and talked with a farmer about agriculture and how it affects their lives. The farmer told Bottis that agriculture can be so unpredictable that one day you could have a hurricane and it wouldn’t affect any crops, but the next day have a little wind chill could kill off everything. Balancing the good and the bad was the lesson Bottis extracted from his conversation with the farmer he and decided to paint an enormous painting of ladybugs intertwined with a flooded field. Bottis’ preferred mediums are somewhat unorthodox. One will notice that he does not usually paint on regular canvas, but on doors, drawers and old boxes. "President Greer cleaned out his closet one day and I got the remains! They were great because the Flooded Field painting is painted on a door and I could never afford to buy canvas that large. The paint is usually house paint, too, at least on the base coat."

Recycling is a good way to save Bottis some cash; he said that most people tell him they would paint more but it is just too expensive. Bottis’ family is proud of his accomplishments. His wife, Judy, claims that it is indeed interesting to live with an artist. "He has taken over the whole garage, but the house is still intact," she said. "Bottis’ work is truly commendable because he has balanced having a family and a job while trying to make his dream come true. He has captured the American spirit in his artwork by making his theme cotton. "Everyone loves it, and even though people don’t like to talk about it,cotton is our history and we use it everyday, hey, it’s the fabric of our lives!"