This article by Jeffrey Pierre appeared in The Miami Herald.

Moving to the sounds of Haitian drums, Weiselande César stretches her arms above her head, and then instructs her dance class to do the same. For most girls in the class, the choreography is difficult to learn and foreign.

César’s dance style borrows from the Caribbean, African and Spanish Folkloric dances that influence Haitian dance — like Rara, a dance performed during Easter Week for Haitian Carnival.

“You guys are starting to get it,” César says.

Every Friday night at the Little Haiti Cultural Center’s studio space, César meets with a group of girls to demonstrate the beauty in Haitian folklore. When César, a dance instructor and public school teacher, asked a colleague, Myriame Pierre, at Toussaint L’Ouverture Elementary School about the perception of Haitian culture, she said the two shared the same sentiment: Too many people either…