Season 8


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Aspectos. The Spanish term for aspects, Aspects: 1.a particular part or feature of something. 2.the positioning of a building or thing in a specified direction.

Aspectos is an investigation into the Afro-Latin culture through movement and performances. Exploring the Nuyorican perspective. Aspectos are two movement narratives combined into one story; including works Madre Mia (Mother of Mine) set around the dining room table of my re-imagined childhood home. Reliving family dynamic, traditions and culture of music and food and Negra Con Tumbao (Black Woman with Soul) a solo piece where I collect oral and written stories of memories from friends and family to piece together a sense of my re-examined identity not only created by my idea of what it means to be black but how others interpret my blackness. Examining my culture through dance entails many different aspects, from Religion, practices, traditions, language and the home. I will use traditions practiced through my family’s religion of Santeria, music passed down from my ancestors and movement danced in the rooms of my childhood home. 

And so this reclamation began with an investigation into Afro-Latin rhythm and movement; by plugging Bomba Y Plena foot and torso patterns into contemporary forms; I began developing a new movement language for two new works Sistema and Isla. Sistema is a work that investigates the abstract notions of bodies within systems. Using movement to engage the audience, Sistema seeks to tell the story of “our” and “home” and where those places exist within systems. An evening length journey into the unanswered questions; how do systems affect the moving body? How do bodies move within those structured systems?  Isla, which then switches gears in response to the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria on the Island of Puerto Rico.  Having returned to my family’s home on the island to witness the crumbling ceilings and the local shops that have since closed from the storm’s damages left a very visceral and raw emotion, which I have tried to translate into the movement dynamics of Isla.


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Premiering at Center For Performance Research

November 1st 7:30pm

November 2nd 7:30pm

November 3rd 3pm

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Dancers: Ann-Marie Gover, Gerard Minaya, Maria-Vittoria Villa, Fernando Moya-Delgado, Megan Curet, Melani De Guzman and Kristen Hedberg.