Erica Zuniga

Erica Zuniga

Movement Performance - Eternal Feminine Film

Erica is an entrepreneur, dancer, vocalist, actress, Creative Arts Instructor, and a licensed Zumba® Instructor (for Children, Adults, and Senior Citizens). She is the Founder and Owner of “Weyu Le: Nourishing Your Life Naturally®“, an international, holistic, dance-fitness organization that teaches the importance of food, exercise, wellness, and spirituality. The term “Weyu Le” is in her native Garifuna language from Central America and it means “This is the sun” or “This is the way”. Combined, “Weyule” means “Today”.

Erica graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) and received her Bachelor of Arts’ degrees in English, and Theatre. While at USC, she spent a school year studying theatre at the British American Drama Academy (BADA) in London, England. Both semesters ended in performances at the Bridge Lane Theatre. She also holds an Associate Degree in Spanish from West Los Angeles College.

Erica is currently the Director of Arts and Cultural Performances for the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United, Inc. (GAHFU), and is also the Director of GAHFU's dance and drumming group, the Lidereibugu Garifuna Ensemble (LGE). "Lidereibugu" means "Powerful" in Garifuna, and is comprised of Garifuna men and women who were born in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and the United States. LGE has performed and taught workshops about Garifuna culture and Zumba® workshops at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), the California African American Museum’s (CAAM’s) Target Sundays, the Caribbean Heritage Organization's “Tribute to Hollywood” Gala event, the “Dia De Los Muertos Festival” at the Hollywood Forever Park, the Casa De La Cultura Maya's event "Mesoamerica and its Maya Ancestral Knowledge”, UCLA’s Latin American Institute; California State University, Northridge’s Central American Research and Policy Institute, and Cerritos College.

Erica had the privilege of singing and dancing with one of her own dance instructors and mentors, Chester Whitmore, at the world-famous Cicada Club in downtown Los Angeles. They also traveled to Russia in 2011 with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SJMO) to perform a variety of dance styles - Tap, Lindy Hop, Swing, Be-Bop, and Charleston - at several special concerts which featured music and songs by jazz greats Duke Ellington and Count Basie. The concerts were held at various concert halls in several Russian cities, including the Moscow International House of Music, the Kazan State Conservatory, the Philharmonic Hall in Samara and the Spaso House (the residence of the American Ambassador in Moscow). The intention of the Russian tour was to bring Russian and American citizens together through the appreciation of jazz as a unique American genre, bridge cultures and promote the shared values of freedom, cultural diversity, innovation, individuality and creative collaboration.

Erica's international dance journey continued in the summer of 2012, when she was asked to be the Choreographer and Dance Instructor for the Garifuna Retrieval Workshop in her Ancestral land, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) located in the Caribbean. Daily, she taught her traditional Garifuna dances, while incorporating modern dance routines, to approximately seventy children aged 5 to 18. To celebrate the culmination of the program, the students showcased the dances, monologues, poetry, and songs they had learned at several concerts in the different villages and cities where they lived. In 2019 she traveled back to St. Vincent with a U.S. Contingent of Garifuna musicians, and dancers to teach and perform around the island again, and reuniting with some of her former SVG students.

Erica is thankful to God, and her Ancestors for always guiding her with their Light.

www.weyu-le.org