Claudia Orcasitas

Director of Choreography

 

I began the process with 2 tasks to explore each dancer's cultural background. The dancers shared with me their personal interest in this project. They also talked about their cultural heritage. In this meeting, I asked each dancer to bring a picture, a song and a fabric that can represent their cultural roots. These elements allowed me to get to know each dancer and collect ideas for the movement exploration. The pictures suggested some movement and space patterns that we began to play with since the first rehearsal. Then, we added the music element, which assisted the dancers to create some movement phrases. After that I added the fabric element to continue exploring more movement possibilities. 

 

The process was quite different with each dancer since they had different dance and cultural background. My approach was to assist each dancer to find an idea that can lead them to create movement phrases naturally. I wanted them to explore their own movements rather than learn movements from me. 

• Rachel Nabarrete explored her Spanish and Mexican influences, so she chose to use Flamenco and Mexican Folklorico. She had performed these dances before, so it was easy for her to create movement phrases based on my tasks. 

• Aaliyah Smith explored Belize traditional dances. She and her family are from the Caribbean coast (Central America) near Guatemala and Mexico. She had some exposure to her family cultural roots, but not much. So, I asked to have conversations with her mom and explore movements with her, which she later brought them to our rehearsals. 

• Amanda Muniz chose to explore Cumbia since she explained that this dance was the one that connected her with her family cultural background and favorite singer, Selena. She did not have much exposure to traditional dances, so I decided to explore movement phrases with her. My family is from Peru, where we dance different Cumbia Styles.

 

Our students cultural background is so amazing and important. I noticed they were so excited to speak about their cultural heritage and family history. Their performance skills became stronger and valuable for them. They were talking about their own personal experiences. I also noticed that including them in the process as collaborators empowered them in many ways. Although, we had an individual voice (that came from our cultural heritage) in this collaborative process, we all felt connected by our Latinx roots (as choreographers and performers).