¡FLACC!
FESTIVAL OF LATIN AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS
presented by
Piñata Dance Collective
"BREAKTHROUGH" FLACC 2018LOCATION: Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco, California, USA
DATES: November 9-11, Fri-Sat. 8pm, Sun. 6pm. 2018 In 2018, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (¡FLACC!) will celebrate five years of featuring resistant, queer, indigenous, and hybrid choreographers based in the United States and Latin America. The co-curators of FLACC, Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz and Liz Duran Boubion, want to celebrate this quintessential year with a BREAKTHROUGH experience. The concept of “the break” is a common theme that is often associated with the Latinx experience in the United States. We break laws. We break away from traditions. Forced immigration breaks up families across borders. Yet the value of the break(through) can also be celebratory. Such as breaking open a Piñata, breaking down old paradigms, or breaking through personal and social limitations. The Breakthrough concept can also be a site or process to consider other ways of building community, forming assemblies, and developing artistic practices. For example, there is a recovery period of regeneration after something has been fractured or cracked. The creative process itself encompasses a cycle or set of phases that each choreographer plays with in various ways. Within the cycle of building up or breaking down something, there may be a pause, avoidance or reflection time to harvest, gather, nurture or heal. ¡FLACC! is an endeavor that attempts to construct, build and assemble shattered pieces that have existed to keep Latin American and indigenous contemporary choreographers out of funding pools or out of community building practices in the bay area. In this time of civil unrest, including political differences within families & friends, we also see transformative waves of conflict resolution, altruistic support, and a common desire to work toward peace. Through our performances, panel discussions and artist-to-artist feedback processes, FLACC is offering opportunities to create new relationships that are more essential, transparent, and intimate. FLACC has asked the eight 2018 featured choreographers to respond to the idea of breaking through, reflecting on what phase of a creative process are they in and what are they breaking through artistically, politically or personally at this time. For 2018, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers has welcomed performance entries that examine, but are not limited to, the following ideas or themes:
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Vanessa Sanchez/ La Mezcla. Photo: John JotaLeanos
Randy Reyes. Photo: Robbie Sweeny
Marisa Plasencia
Adrian Arias
Diana Lara. Photo: Jesse Weiner.
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GREETINGS FROM THE ORGANIZERS OF FLACC
Bienvenidos! The purpose of this annual showcase is to celebrate the diverse heritages and innovations of Chicana/o/x/, Latina/o/x and Indigenous choreographers. ¡FLACC! creates a platform to connect and strengthen our communities through multi-media dance performance locally and internationally.
Departing from traditional and folkloric dance forms that typically represent Latino constituencies, FLACC’s culturally nuanced, hybridized and politically charged dance genre brings a refreshing perspective to the contemporary dance sector, igniting conversations with dance-theater enthusiasts and Latina/o/xs internationally. Our decision to create a welcoming space along the “cutting-edge” continuum of classical contemporary dance to conceptual performance art, gives marginalized choreographers more visibility and freedom socially, politically and artistically.
Our sustainability depends on our collaborations with each other and FLACC is rapidly creating a recognizable platform for Latina/o/x artists to meet one another under one roof. The artists’ subjects encompass a broad spectrum of abstract to dramatized themes of identity, immigration, deportation, gentrification, personal story, folkloric/modern fusions and re-appropriated cultural traditions.
Departing from traditional and folkloric dance forms that typically represent Latino constituencies, FLACC’s culturally nuanced, hybridized and politically charged dance genre brings a refreshing perspective to the contemporary dance sector, igniting conversations with dance-theater enthusiasts and Latina/o/xs internationally. Our decision to create a welcoming space along the “cutting-edge” continuum of classical contemporary dance to conceptual performance art, gives marginalized choreographers more visibility and freedom socially, politically and artistically.
Our sustainability depends on our collaborations with each other and FLACC is rapidly creating a recognizable platform for Latina/o/x artists to meet one another under one roof. The artists’ subjects encompass a broad spectrum of abstract to dramatized themes of identity, immigration, deportation, gentrification, personal story, folkloric/modern fusions and re-appropriated cultural traditions.
OUR VISION
¡FLACC! supports emerging and established Dance Artists of the Latina/o/x Diaspora who are choosing to make dances of the non-traditional, border-crossing, rule-breaking, cutting-edge, queer, avant-garde, contemporary, curious, experimental, abstract, sensitive, hybridized, neo-classical, or revolutionary varieties. For our purposes, choreographers with “Latin American” cultural heritage or ancestry are defined by all countries that speak Spanish, Portuguese, or Indigenous languages in the Americas- from the Borderlands of the US to the tip of South America, including the Caribbean Islands. Indigenous contemporary choreographers of North America and US-born Chicana/o/xs and Latina/o/xs are also invited to apply to this Festival.
¡FLACC! is committed to giving our greater community of Latina/o/xs more access and exposure to contemporary modern and experimental dance forms by offering affordable tickets to the show, panel discussions with the artists, teaching by local Latina/o/x dance educators, hosting international choreographers and aligning with Dancers' Group as our fiscal sponsors. We are also committed to bringing Bay Area Latino/a/x choreographers out of isolation and into a supported arena by providing year-round work-in-progress feedback showings to help in the creative process by engaging with colleagues and established artists who are committed to support FLACC.
One of our goals is to develop an educational component that provides opportunities for FLACC artists to engage with schools locally and internationally. This includes: Offering tickets to the show, panel discussions, master classes, workshops and presentations in high schools, colleges, private studios, community organizations, conferences and other dance festivals.
¡FLACC! is committed to giving our greater community of Latina/o/xs more access and exposure to contemporary modern and experimental dance forms by offering affordable tickets to the show, panel discussions with the artists, teaching by local Latina/o/x dance educators, hosting international choreographers and aligning with Dancers' Group as our fiscal sponsors. We are also committed to bringing Bay Area Latino/a/x choreographers out of isolation and into a supported arena by providing year-round work-in-progress feedback showings to help in the creative process by engaging with colleagues and established artists who are committed to support FLACC.
One of our goals is to develop an educational component that provides opportunities for FLACC artists to engage with schools locally and internationally. This includes: Offering tickets to the show, panel discussions, master classes, workshops and presentations in high schools, colleges, private studios, community organizations, conferences and other dance festivals.
Co-DIRECTOR |
Co-DIrector |
Liz Duran Boubion, MFA, RSMT
Artistic/Managing Director, Piñata Dance Collective The Piñata Dance Collective celebrates our diverse heritages, our inclusive identities and our artistic innovations through multi-media contemporary dance performance and education. FLACC was created in 2014 as a way to build a platform for Latina/o/x artists. www.lizboubion.org |
Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz, Ph.D. Candidate
Co-Director of FLACC since 2017. *Check out Sima Belmar's insightful article featuring Juan Manuel Aldape. http://dancersgroup.org/2017/05/in-practice-borderlines/ www.juanmaldape.com |
PRODUCTION STAFF |
¡FLACC! ADvisory committee |
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Zoé Klein, Production Manager
Richard Aldag, Grant Manager Adrian Arias, Graphic Design Diana Lara, Outreach |
CatherineMarie Davalos
Ernesto Sopprani Eric Garcia Andreina Maldonado Karla Quintero |
History
In 2018, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (¡FLACC!) will celebrate five years of featuring resistant, queer, indigenous, and hybrid choreographers based in the United States and Latin America. FLACC is rapidly creating a recognizable space for marginalized Latina/o/x artists to meet one another under one roof. The artists’ work has encompassed a broad spectrum of culturally nuanced subjects related to identity, citizenship, immigration/deportation, treaty rights, religion, queer politics, re-invented Latino traditions, multi-lingual performance vocabulary and more. Over the last 4 years, FLACC has featured 40 artists in San Francisco and hosted 6 artist panel discussions in venues such as the California Institute of Integral Studies, UC Berkeley, The Center for Latino Policy Research, and post show discussions at Dance Mission Theater.
The festival consists of a dedicated group of artists that have worked together to strengthen the festival over the last 5 years. Founding Director: Liz Duran Boubion; Co-director: Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz; Production Manager: Zoe Klein; Consultants: Ernesto Sopprani and Richard Aldag; Latino Media Outreach: Diana Lara and Andreina Maldonado; Graphic Design: Adrian Arias and several other FLACCistas who volunteer, offer advice and cross-promote.
Founder, Liz Duran Boubion: After returning from an artist residency called, Xochi Quetzal, in Jalisco, Mexico, Ms. Boubion invited two of her dance students from Guadalajara to show a duet in Oakland, in October of 2014. Visiting artists, Victor Infante and Marlet Martinez of company, ALARIETE(MEX), were joined by 7 local, Bay Area Latino/a/x choreographers invited by Ms. Boubion and co-presented by Leyya Tawil at Temescal Art Center. This international collaboration inaugurated the first annual ¡FLACC! Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers which was aligned with Boubion’s community-minded vision as a Chicana and Queer choreographer directing the Piñata Dance Collective.
The founding choreographers of ¡FLACC! 2014, Eric Garcia, CatherineMarie Davalos, Natta Haotzima, Diana Lara, Rogelio Lopez, Zari Leon, and Liz Duran Boubion all continued to support this festival volunteering in significant ways to keep it going. It seemed to fill a void in the community creating a deep impact on the artists involved. FLACC encourages artists to access multiple dance styles and speak in their native tongues to an audience and organization that understands and receives them. The community as a diaspora is vastly diverse, yet shares many of the same social or political experiences in a contemporary dance scene that is dominated by a white, western perview.
Also, sitting in the audience that first year, were Andreina Maldonado (Venezuela) and Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz (Mexico).
Maldonado’s role as event coordinator of Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts brought ¡FLACC! to San Francisco in 2015. She continues to bridge our community with other community organizations she is affiliated with and she dances with the Piñata Dance Collective.
Aldape offered to lead the 1st panel discussion at CIIS and showed his work in FLACC 2015. While writing his dissertation on Latin American Performance Art at UC Berkeley, Juan continued to support FLACC in several ways each year. A few of his acts of service were: inviting a representative from the Mexican Consulate to give opening remarks at FLACC 2015; serving as stage manager in 2016; and writing the curatorial them for the festival in 2017. Juan now serves as Co-Director of ¡FLACC!.
The festival consists of a dedicated group of artists that have worked together to strengthen the festival over the last 5 years. Founding Director: Liz Duran Boubion; Co-director: Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz; Production Manager: Zoe Klein; Consultants: Ernesto Sopprani and Richard Aldag; Latino Media Outreach: Diana Lara and Andreina Maldonado; Graphic Design: Adrian Arias and several other FLACCistas who volunteer, offer advice and cross-promote.
Founder, Liz Duran Boubion: After returning from an artist residency called, Xochi Quetzal, in Jalisco, Mexico, Ms. Boubion invited two of her dance students from Guadalajara to show a duet in Oakland, in October of 2014. Visiting artists, Victor Infante and Marlet Martinez of company, ALARIETE(MEX), were joined by 7 local, Bay Area Latino/a/x choreographers invited by Ms. Boubion and co-presented by Leyya Tawil at Temescal Art Center. This international collaboration inaugurated the first annual ¡FLACC! Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers which was aligned with Boubion’s community-minded vision as a Chicana and Queer choreographer directing the Piñata Dance Collective.
The founding choreographers of ¡FLACC! 2014, Eric Garcia, CatherineMarie Davalos, Natta Haotzima, Diana Lara, Rogelio Lopez, Zari Leon, and Liz Duran Boubion all continued to support this festival volunteering in significant ways to keep it going. It seemed to fill a void in the community creating a deep impact on the artists involved. FLACC encourages artists to access multiple dance styles and speak in their native tongues to an audience and organization that understands and receives them. The community as a diaspora is vastly diverse, yet shares many of the same social or political experiences in a contemporary dance scene that is dominated by a white, western perview.
Also, sitting in the audience that first year, were Andreina Maldonado (Venezuela) and Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz (Mexico).
Maldonado’s role as event coordinator of Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts brought ¡FLACC! to San Francisco in 2015. She continues to bridge our community with other community organizations she is affiliated with and she dances with the Piñata Dance Collective.
Aldape offered to lead the 1st panel discussion at CIIS and showed his work in FLACC 2015. While writing his dissertation on Latin American Performance Art at UC Berkeley, Juan continued to support FLACC in several ways each year. A few of his acts of service were: inviting a representative from the Mexican Consulate to give opening remarks at FLACC 2015; serving as stage manager in 2016; and writing the curatorial them for the festival in 2017. Juan now serves as Co-Director of ¡FLACC!.
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2017
REST/UNREST, curated by the new Co-Director of FLACC, Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz, intended to support communities who are directly impacted by current xenophobic, sexist, and anti-LGBTQQI policies. The theme highlighted the varied strategies that Latina/o/x and Indigenous choreographers use to regain their energy in the company of each other, to take care of each other in the face of oppression, and to acknowledge the people and places that have been lost due to police state violence and the silencing of our community members.
FLACC 2017’s featured artists included visiting companies, Alfonso Cervera and Irvin Gonzalez from Los Angeles, Tranze Producciones from Mexicali, Mexico and local choreography by Violeta Luna, Caleb Luna, Vincent Chavez, Piñata Dance Collective, Zoë Klein Productions, and Davalos Dance Company See Video Excerpts Here |
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2016
The 3rd annual festival featured 16 choreographers of the Latina/o/x diaspora, presented in three varied programs. ¡FLACC!’s curator, Liz Duran Boubión, created a regenerative platform of resistance in response to recent social and environmental attacks on our communities. On each night, ¡FLACC! celebrated the intersections of gender, sexuality, nationality and indigeneity among the artists:
Each evening was followed by refreshments and a 20 minute panel discussion with local scholars and choreographers. Moderators included: Ernesto Sopranni, Sandra Pacheco and CatherineMarie Davalos. See Video Excerpts here: |
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2015
Co-presented by Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and Piñata Dance Collective, 7 choreographers performed our 2nd annual showcase at MCCLA, engaged in a panel discussion at California Institute of Integral Studies and offered a teaching series at MCCLA. Featured choreographers, David Herrera, Zari Le'On, CatherineMarie Davalos, Liz Duran Boubion, Rogelio Lopez, Juan Aldape and Detour Dance were featured in SF Weekly, SF Arts Monthly, Dance Anywhere, and garnered a review by Catherine Orloff. See our PRESS PAGE for full details and articles. Video excerpts of FLACC 2015
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2014
With 8 local and visiting choreographers, the humble beginnings of the 1st Annual Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers began! Filling a gap within the contemporary dance community, FLACC finally joined our sisters and brothers of other cultural constituencies with a California-based dance festival of our own. With the generosity of Temescal Art Center's director, Leyya Tawil, in Oakland, CA, and the curation of FLACC's founder, Liz Duran Boubion, the first FLACC production was SOLD OUT with only 6 weeks of preparation upon the arrival of our visiting guest artists from Guadalajara, Mexico. ¡FLACC! 2014 was featured on KPOO FM with FLACC veterans, Natta Haotzima and Diana Lara and reviewed by writer, Heather Desaulniers in Critical Dance. Thank you to all those who have paved the way! Coreógrafos en Movimiento: ALARIETE, Detour Dance, Natta Haotzima, Diana Lara, Zari Le'on, Piñata Dance Collective, Rogelio Lopez, Davalos Dance.
Read ¡FLACC! 2014 Review by Heather Desaulniers : http://www.heatherdance.com/2014/10/flacc.html
Video excerpts from the 1st Annual ¡FLACC! 2014
With 8 local and visiting choreographers, the humble beginnings of the 1st Annual Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers began! Filling a gap within the contemporary dance community, FLACC finally joined our sisters and brothers of other cultural constituencies with a California-based dance festival of our own. With the generosity of Temescal Art Center's director, Leyya Tawil, in Oakland, CA, and the curation of FLACC's founder, Liz Duran Boubion, the first FLACC production was SOLD OUT with only 6 weeks of preparation upon the arrival of our visiting guest artists from Guadalajara, Mexico. ¡FLACC! 2014 was featured on KPOO FM with FLACC veterans, Natta Haotzima and Diana Lara and reviewed by writer, Heather Desaulniers in Critical Dance. Thank you to all those who have paved the way! Coreógrafos en Movimiento: ALARIETE, Detour Dance, Natta Haotzima, Diana Lara, Zari Le'on, Piñata Dance Collective, Rogelio Lopez, Davalos Dance.
Read ¡FLACC! 2014 Review by Heather Desaulniers : http://www.heatherdance.com/2014/10/flacc.html
Video excerpts from the 1st Annual ¡FLACC! 2014
Support the FESTIVAL OF LATIN AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS
Thank you for helping us
fill the Piñata to make ¡FLACC! a success!
Your donation supports inclusivity, innovation and connection. Piñata Dance Collective is committed to making contemporary dance practice and performance accessible to underserved Latina/o/x communities and to creating a platform of connection for Latina/o/x choreographers locally and internationally. ¡FLACC! is a project of the Piñata Dance Collective.
fill the Piñata to make ¡FLACC! a success!
Your donation supports inclusivity, innovation and connection. Piñata Dance Collective is committed to making contemporary dance practice and performance accessible to underserved Latina/o/x communities and to creating a platform of connection for Latina/o/x choreographers locally and internationally. ¡FLACC! is a project of the Piñata Dance Collective.
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All donations for Piñata Dance Collective and ¡FLACC! Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers are tax deductible through our non-profit fiscal sponsor organization:
DANCERS' GROUP 501C3 (415) 920-9181 EIN: 94-2879185 |
Community Collaborators
- ABD Productions
- Dance Mission Theater
- CounterPulse
- Shawl Anderson Dance Center
- California Institute of Integral Studies
- Joe Goode Performance Group
- Monkey Yoga Shala
- UC Berkeley working groups
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- Dolores Street Community Services
- Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
- Dancers' Group
- Footloose Dance Company
- NAKA Dance Theater
