The celebration of womanhood on July 24 features a contemporary dance piece, choreographed by the participants.

“The piece tells the story of a girl’s quest for a guys attention,” said Ms Kleindiest.

The night begins with the presentation of the 12 ladies, three ballroom pieces, a choreographed ballroom piece performed by last year’s graduates and concludes the formalities with a contemporary piece.

The Quinceañera, or Quince años (“15 years” in English), in Latin American culture, is a coming of age ceremony held on a girl’s 15th birthday. The term Quinceaños refers to the birthday of the celebrant, and the term Quinceañera refers to the celebrant herself.

Like many other coming-of-age ceremonies, the Quinceaños is associated with the Quinceañera “becoming a lady”.

The Quinceañera ritual has been traced to 500 BC from the Aztec culture where a girl at the age of 15 was considered apt for motherhood. They celebrated this come to age with a ceremony, dance, and some words of wisdom by the mother. When the Spanish conquered America, they adopted this tradition and the Catholic Church replaced the dancing with a waltz, and the Aztec temple with a Catholic Church.

There are 200 seats available at this years’ New England Quinceanera and Ms Kliendiest said she would like to see as many Walcha folk as possible attend to support Samantha.

“The girls have all completed a three month course learning skills which build their self esteem and confidence,” Ms Kliendiest said.

“It would be wonderful for them to see as many friendly faces in the crowd as possible.”