ADSF and Baila4Life HISTORY: The After School Dance Fund (ASDF) was created in 2010 by Ricardo Loaiza with the unconditional support of his wife Elba Garcia. The Latin dance program actually began in 1999 as a small competition at Seneca Valley High School and only a few schools competed in these early years, but the enthusiastic and quickly growing interest and attendance of the community to the popular Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Latin Dance Competition encouraged Loaiza to take the program to a different level. The competition needed a larger venue than the traditional school auditoriums or gyms, where it had been held for the first ten years of its existence. The After School Dance Fund emerged in order to organize, produce, finance, and find a place, to accommodate its growing number of attendees, while at the same time providing a world-class stage for the MCPS Latin Dance teams to compete. The Music Center at Strathmore became the home of the MCPS Latin Dance Competition in 2010. There competition consists of eight divisions: A) Six Couples categories: Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cha-Cha, Parent/Student and Jack-n Jill. B) Two Group categories: Best in Show Senior and Best in Show Junior.
BEST IN SHOW SENIOR WINNERS AT STRATHMORE ON NOVEMBER 20, 2023.
SABOR LATINO LATIN DANCE TEAM FROM GAITHERSBURG HIGH SCHOOL. Since then, ASDF has grown into a year-long educational program with an annual event that defines Hispanic heritage in Montgomery County. Students who might normally not get involved in extracurricular activities join their after school dance club to discover a sense of school community and individual pride. In addition to the continue growing Latina/o/x student population,the program invites other non-Latino students from MCPS to come together to share and learn some of the most popular Latin dances in the United States and the World. This event encourages students to work as a team, and be part of a healthy competition and they get to showcase their hard work and talent at the competition.
BEST IN SHOW JUNIOR WINNERS AT STRATHMORE ON NOVEMBER 20, 2023. SENSACION LATIN DANCE TEAM FROM SENECA VALEY SCHOOL.
In 2012, the After School Dance Fund expanded its operations and has had pilot projects individually with some , D.C. public schools (Wilson, CHEC, Roosevelt and Cardozo) and DC Charter schools (Next Step, E.L. Haynes). The DC Regional HS Latin dance competitions has been supported in the past by the Latin American Youth Center and the Washington Performing Arts (WPA's) and took place at the auditoriums at Wilson HS, CHEC, Cardozo. In more recent years we moved it to the Lincoln Theater and since 2018 ASDF presents the DC Regional HS Latin dance competition at the Kennedy Center' Millennium Stage on Memorial Day as part of the DCPS music Festival week.
