FLACC 2019: Bridges & Bones / Puentes Y Huesos
Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers is celebrating its 6th Annual festival featuring resistant, queer, indigenous, and hybrid choreographers of the Latinx diaspora.
With 2 weeks of performance, master classes and panel discussions, Bridges & Bones is replacing ideas of borders and walls that separate and erase Latinxs in the US, by creating cultural bridges, honoring ancestors and building artistic alliances that unify 15 dance companies over 2 weekends at Dance Mission Theater and Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archives(BAMPFA).
The 2019 theme BRIDGES & BONES implies the literal bridge to cross from San Francisco to the East Bay, as well as, the metaphorical bridges and alliances needed to overcome the walls that separate Latinx communities and families across local and national borders.
FLACC artists with varied experiences of intersectional Latinx identities carry the weight of cultural bridge building in the bones of their own body or felt through a lineage of our Chicanx/Latinx ancestors. Bridges & Bones offers an opportunity for FLACCistas and audiences to come together to share this weight together with a refreshing and contemporary experience of inclusion. Having a visible presence in a performance gallery, the architecture of a museum, the proscenium stage, reputable dance studios and an engaging artist discussion at one of the top universities in the state of California, FLACC is thrilled to offer dynamic new programs expanding across the Bay Bridge for 2 consecutive weeks this fall from SF to the East Bay ...
With 2 weeks of performance, master classes and panel discussions, Bridges & Bones is replacing ideas of borders and walls that separate and erase Latinxs in the US, by creating cultural bridges, honoring ancestors and building artistic alliances that unify 15 dance companies over 2 weekends at Dance Mission Theater and Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archives(BAMPFA).
The 2019 theme BRIDGES & BONES implies the literal bridge to cross from San Francisco to the East Bay, as well as, the metaphorical bridges and alliances needed to overcome the walls that separate Latinx communities and families across local and national borders.
FLACC artists with varied experiences of intersectional Latinx identities carry the weight of cultural bridge building in the bones of their own body or felt through a lineage of our Chicanx/Latinx ancestors. Bridges & Bones offers an opportunity for FLACCistas and audiences to come together to share this weight together with a refreshing and contemporary experience of inclusion. Having a visible presence in a performance gallery, the architecture of a museum, the proscenium stage, reputable dance studios and an engaging artist discussion at one of the top universities in the state of California, FLACC is thrilled to offer dynamic new programs expanding across the Bay Bridge for 2 consecutive weeks this fall from SF to the East Bay ...
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Bridges & Bones/ SF at Dance Mission Theater features 3 groundbreaking choreographers performing complete works representing a unique Latinx dance cannon; from a politically charged solo challenging notions of the public gaze on Latinidad, gender and sexuality by Miguel Gutierrez(NY), desmadre (messiness) by the collaborative choreographers of Primera Generación Dance Collective (Riverside/LA), and the historical work of José Limón in Exiles, performed by Gabriel Mata(SF) and Kelisha Gardeen. Mata will also be sharing an original choreography of his own titled, This is where/ I begin...
Artists at Dance Mission TheaterFriday & Saturday Nov. 15-16
ARTist TALK Miguel Gutierrez/ Photo Credit:
With Miguel Gutierrez (NY)
Does Abstraction Belong To White People? Thinking politics of race in contemporary dance. November 14, 4 to 6pm The Latinx Research Center 2547 Channing Way, Berkeley ***FREE - Space is limited to 50 Read the essay: Does Abstraction Belong to White People? Miguel Gutierrez lives in Brooklyn, NY. He creates dance-based performances, music and poetry that focus on desire, identity and the search for meaning. He is a 2016 Doris Duke Artist. His work has been presented in venues such as Centre National de Danse, Centre Pompidou, ImPulsTanz, Fringe Arts, Walker Art Center, TBA/PICA, MCA Chicago, New York Live Arts, Live Arts Bard, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. He has received support from Creative Capital, MAP, National Dance Project, and Jerome Foundation and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Artists, New York Foundation for the Arts, Tides Foundation as well as a Foundation for Contemporary Art award and four NY Dance and Performance Bessies. Recent commissions include This Bridge Called My Ass, a group performance that bends tropes of Latinidad to articulate new relationships to identity. The piece premiered in 2019 at The Chocolate Factory as part of American Realness Festival and tours throughout 2019 and 2020 to a host of venues. He currently performs a music project called SADONNA, where he turns Madonna’s upbeat songs into sad anthems. He runs LANDING, an educational initiative at Gibney, and his book When You Rise Up is available from 53rd State Press. www.miguelgutierrez.org *Plus* a chance to dialogue with every FLACC 2019 Artist in 3 post-show panel discussions!
Sat. Nov. 16(Dance Mission) and Fri/Sat Nov. 22, 23 (BAMPFA) |
Bridges & Bones/East Bay at BAMPFA features 12 Latinx coreógrafos en movimiento divided into 2 separate programs with different companies featured each day. Artists will be bringing culturally nuanced, site-specific or politically charged movement installations to the architecture and community of the museum setting. Audiences will go on a journey through various spaces to witness impactful performances in 2 different programs each day.
Artists at BAMPFA
Violeta Luna/Photo credit: Yvonne Portra
NAKA + Mujeres Unidas Y Activas/ Photo Credit: Scott Tsuchitani
Jocelyn Reyes/ Photo Credit: Guido Budani
Randy Reyes and Stephanie Hewitt/ Photo Credit: Yvonne Portra
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Master Classes
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Bridges & Bones Site-Specific Open Performance Lab.
with Liz Duran Boubion and Karla Quintero Sunday Oct. 20 12-2:30pm Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive 2155 Center St, Berkeley *FREE upon Museum Entry ($10) 
Photo credit: Florian Hönig
One-day site-focused dance workshop open to the public at BAMPFA. Using movement, sound and improvisational scores, workshop participants will excavate the BAMPFA museum, mapping its architecture and conjuring its history. This workshop is open to all members of the public. Movers of all abilities, shapes, and backgrounds are welcome. Class will be taught by English/Spanish speakers. Class is limited, please register in advance.
Artist Bios: Liz Duran Boubion is a second generation Chicana choreographer, the artistic director of the Piñata Dance Collective and founder of ¡FLACC! Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers. She has held 7 choreographers residencies in the US and Mexico and is an associate teacher of the Tamalpa Institute. She received her BA in Dance from CSU Long Beach and her MFA in Creative Inquiry from California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. Boubion has been published in InDance Magazine, Stance on Dance, Conscious Dancer Magazine and is registered with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). She teaches ongoing movement classes for seniors with neurodegenerative diseases, youth in Oakland and is a regular guest teacher in local universities, Contact Improv jams and dance festivals. www.lizboubion.org Karla Quintero hails from New York City. A first-generation American of Colombian and Nicaraguan descent, her artistic work references the imaginative spirit and passion for story-telling particular to these two cultures. Since relocating to the Bay Area, she has appeared in works by Christy Funsch, Jo Kreiter, Kim Epifano, Robert Moses, Dexandro Montalvo, Leyya Tawil, Daria Kaufman, Deborah Karp, Aura Fischbeck, Alma Esperanza Cunningham and RAWDance. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Garage (SF) & the Temescal Arts Center (Oakland) where she created surreal & immersive works about the future. She holds a BFA from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance and a BA in Urban Studies from Barnard College. In addition to dance, she is intrigued by language, stories, cities and motion capture technology. |
Latinx Hybrid Contemporary Dance.
with Primera Generación Friday Nov. 15 10am-12pm. Dance Mission Theater 3316 24th St, San Francisco, CA 94110 Cost: $25 
Photo Credit: Hugo Ramos
Photo Credit: Hugo Ramos
Co-taught by members of PGDC, participants will be immersed in the company's signature multilingual Latinx contemporary dance genre integrating contemporary release technique, Latin social dances, Spanish/English dialogue, affect, and rasquache movement formations as a way of reveling in (un)known sites of belonging and dancing.
Artist Bios: Primera Generación Dance Collective is a collaborative group based in Riverside, California and formed by Alfonso Cervera, Rosa Rodriguez-Frazier, Irvin Manuel Gonzalez and Patricia (Patty) Huerta. They focus on the visibility of Mexican American corporeality through movement-based exploration, process and performance. The collective finds its roots in experimental choreography and research that focuses on Mexican American identity and its many marginalized connections. facebook.com/primerageneraciondance |
Contemporary dance class with a José Limón approach.
with Gabriel Mata Saturday Nov. 16 1-3 pm Lines Dance Center (see website) 26 7th St #5, San Francisco Cost: $25 
Class will bring attention to breath and will navigate through a progression of movement from internal to external. Fall/Release, footwork, use of space, and inversions make up the movement vocabulary that is accessed through musicality. Inspiration from Limón technique and a contemporary viewpoint is the foundation for this class.
Artist Bios: Gabriel Mata is a Mexican-American dance choreographer, educator, and performer. The StarTribune has called him “Sly, subtle and totally virtuosic, theatrical dancer-choreographer Gabriel Mata holds the stage with expressive movement and witty words.” Gabriel Mata/Movements is his solo based performance project. His dances have been performed in Minnesota, California, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and DC. His work has been commissioned/performed by sjDANCEco, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers, the Luna Dance Institute, Joy of Motion, Dance Place, and the Charlotte Dance Festival. He has performed for companies such as sjDANCEco, Post:Ballet, and Zenon Dance Company. Mata has also performed for artists such as Robert Woofter, Diane Frank, Mark Foehringer, Joel Smith, Keith Johnson, Wynn Fricke, and the work of José Limón. He has been awarded the Sadie Rose Artist Residency Award, the Mina Garman Award for Excellence in Choreography, and the Carol Ann Haws Award for Excellence in Performance. He is currently a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Maryland - College Park. https://gabrielmata91.wixsite.com/dance |
