Carbondale Arts and Dance Initiative are teaming up to kick off the annual Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration in Town on First Friday, Nov. 6. Dance Initiative’s Folklórico program will lead the annual procession, starting at 6pm from the Third Street Center and continuing on to Chacos Park.
Dance Initiative Executive Director Joan Dizon said that she is looking forward to bringing Folklórico back to the community with help from instructors Lizbeth Landa, Juan Peña and Angel Najera.
“The most rewarding part of building up to this has been seeing Lizbeth, Juan and Angel really spearheading this program, and knowing that they wanted to teach the kids and to carry on this program,” she said. “The most rewarding thing is actually seeing it realized, and that being validated by the community and by the kids and the families. That has just been incredible.”
“Since starting our [Folklórico] program in April of 2026, we have grown it significantly,” she continued. “We have experienced a lot of success in our kids program, have been invited to perform around the valley and were very fortunate to be invited by Carbondale Arts to participate in First Friday’s Día de los Muertos.”
Landa, Peña and Najera all studied the traditional style of dance through Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s Baile Folklórico program, before that chapter sunsetted last year. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet program was led by longtime director Francisco “Paco” Nevarez-Burgueño and headed up the Día de los Muertos procession for many years.
Each of the three new instructors has over a decade of experience in the dance style.
“Right now, we’re doing local small events. We’re aiming towards bigger programming and events and gathering a larger audience around us who enjoy it as much as we do,” Najera said. “We plan to just keep going and pushing as far as we can and as much as we can.”
His sentiments were shared by his co-instructors, Peña and Landa, who hope to see the same growth. They hope for the upcoming procession to be a good starting point for future events.
“We’ve come a long way since the beginning of this program, and so have our students,” Peña said. “We do plan to keep on going, one after the other. We have no plans to stop. Personally, I think I speak for all of us. We really don’t want to slow down and we want to keep giving the kids what they want in the community.”
His sentiments were echoed by Landa, who expressed a desire to see the program continue to grow and get as big as possible.
Folks are also invited to head to the Carbondale Library at 4:30pm on Nov. 6 for face painting, hot chocolate and some pan de muerto (bread of the dead) ahead of the procession. Community members are welcome to show up to Chacos Park at 5pm, when food trucks will be open for business and activities will commence, ahead of the procession arriving at the park around 6:45pm.
For more information or to get involved with Dance Initiative’s Folklórico program, visit danceinitiative.org For details regarding the Day of the Dead celebration, visit carbondalearts.com
In a nutshell
What: Día de los Muertos
When: Nov. 6
Where: Downtown Carbondale
More details: carbondalearts.com/upcoming-events