GIVING BACK: Alum Alvin Rangel has a conversation with his former student and current dance artist, Robert Pulido

DCDC has numerous alumni who have gone on to have their own success outside of the company. As they perform, teach, and work in fields outside of dance, the core values instilled from their time in the company continue to arise in the alumni's lives. Many have taken these values and passed them onto their students, particularly, those striving to be professional dance artists. Alvin Rangel and Robert Pulido is a particularly unique example.

Alvin Rangel, a DCDC alum, spent many years with the company performing many of DCDC's classic works as well as new creations set on the company. After having spent nearly a decade in the first company, Alvin left to pursue other opportunities from continuing to perform as a guest artist with other companies, choreographing his own works, teaching at the university level and pursuing the exploration and understanding of multiple styles of dance and movement. While teaching modern at California State University Fullerton, Alvin Rangel  had the opportunity to return to DCDC to set a work on the company. At the time, he brought with him a student of his Robert Pulido, exposing him to the welcoming environment of DCDC. It was then that Robert was struck with the fascination for the company and ultimately followed in the footsteps of his mentor and joined the DCDC family as a first company dance artist. Robert and Alvin have not only the shared history of student and teacher but the experiences of being in the same company, doing some of the same works and performing on stage together. The dynamic energy between these two shows how deep the roots of DCDC goes as years and time can go by, but the core of DCDC remains the same.