Some people are born to do something, whether it is painting, writing, practicing law or medicine. Diana Tolebo was born to dance.
“I think that if you have the heart for it, anything’s possible,” Tolebo, 19, said.
Being Brazilian and living in Brazil country for two years has had a significant influence on Tolebo. She was on a dance team when she lived in Brazil and was immersed in the culture. Most of her family still lives there.
“They all love to dance,” Tolebo said. “We’re Brazilian. What we do when we get together is eat and dance.”
As a child, Tolebo participated in other activities like karate and sports. However, dancing drew her in and ever since Tolebo has been improving her skills.
“My mom wanted me to experience as much as I could so she put me in soccer, she put me in a bunch of different stuff. She put me in dance and that was the only thing I really stuck to,” Tolebo said.
For a sophomore in college, Tolebo has a large resume. When she attended Redondo Union High School, Tolebo was the head of the salsa, hip-hop, and break dance teams. The salsa class was called Sabor de Salsa which means flavor of salsa. She was also part of a nonprofit dance group called E-Funk that would perform at charities and other events.
Tolebo does not like to adhere to any discipline, but here forte is salsa and hip-hop.
“It’s a lot easier when you do know every sort of dance, you have more opportunities with it,” Tolebo said. “Which is why I am trying to expand and not just be a salsa dancer or a hip-hop dancer. I want to do it all.”
At EC, she takes all the dance classes she can including Latin, modern, jazz, and ballet. For as much as she learns in class, she learns just as much outside of it.
“I watched music videos and I picked things up on my own,” Tolebo said. ” I would see girls dancing on the street and stuff – hip-hoppers, break dancers, and I just watched and tried it out at home and it worked.”
Tolebo also follows some dancing shows on television, and enjoys comparing her skills with the dancers on the show.
“You watch shows like ‘You Think You Can Dance?’and you see the people that dance because they can and there are people that dance because they really have a passion for what they’re doing,” Tolebo said. “You can read it all over their face and that’s me. I am the type of person that’s passionate about it.”
At the moment, Tolebo is planning on teaching an after school dance class at Roger’s Middle School. This could be the first step in a much larger career. Tolebo is a dance major and plans to become a dance teacher.
“For now, I am just majoring in dance to have something under my belt because you have to have a major in dance to be able to teach now. They don’t take teachers without a degree,” Tolebo said.
When she has completed her general education classes at EC, Tolebo wants to transfer to UC Irvine and is applying there next year. She eventually wants to open her own studio, hence her present business minor. Somewhere in between, Tolebo would also like to get the opportunity to perform abroad, especially Japan and Spain.
“I want to go to Japan and Spain. A, because that’s where the money is, and B, I think it would be really awesome,” Tolebo said.
This has not always been Tolebo’s plan. She was originally a psychology major, but dropped it for her real passion.
“Pretty much everybody’s a psychology major and I was like since I am going to have to be struggling for a job anyway I might as well do something that I’m really passionate about,” said Tolebo. “I just took a second, thought about it, and decided that I was going to pursue what I really wanted to do.”
For now, Tolebo says she is going to continue doing what she loves and has practiced for years.
“You can ask anyone that knows me, dancing pretty much consumes my life,” Tolebo said. “Everyone that knows me, knows me as that one dancer chick, it’s kind of sad.”