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FESTIVAL DANCERSDe Rompe y Raja Cultural Association
DANCE ORIGIN: Coastal Peru 2011 PERFORMANCE
2011 DANCERS: Eleana Arizaga, Fernanda Bustamante, Roxana Ferreyra, Mariela Herrera, Zhayra Palma, Sylvia Pestana, Erica Sarmiento, Gabriela Shiroma, Tyese M. Wortham WORLD PREMIERE Del Africa hasta esta tierra, mujer negra . . . Di de mamar a sus hijos, los cuidaba Les presto mi risa, Les presto mi fuego Les presto mi ritmo, Me celebro! From Africa to this land, the black woman . . . I nursed their children, I cared for them I lend you my laughter, I lend you my fire, I lend you my rhythm, I celebrate myself! Mujer Negra—Black Woman, pays tribute to Peru’s independence (1821), and to the contribution of Peruvian women of African descent. It is a unique all-women performance of the Afro-Peruvian zamacueca, traditionally a courtship dance. De Rompe y Raja honors the femininity and authoritativeness of African women, and their joy in political freedom. Zamacueca is known as the Mother Dance of the Americas, a dance of celebration, gallantry, romance, independence, identity, and struggle. Its folkloric children include the Peruvian marinera, Argentine samba, Chilean and Bolivian cueca, Mexican chilena, and several California Gold Rush dances. Lima’s mostly-African population created the form in coastal Peru in the late eighteenth century Colonial period. For the Afro-Peruvians, it was a New World interpretation of Spanish affectation; for the European classes, it became the dance of dubious societies. In the 1950s and ’60s era, Peruvian folkloric pioneers Jose Duran Flores and Victoria Santa Cruz revived the zamacueca and choreographed it for stage. This performance is in this post-revival style, emphasizing the African elements of syncopation, conga, cowbells, exaggerated pelvic movement, and call and response song. The cajón box drum was ingeniously invented by African dockworkers; the guitar and vocals are Spanish; the pentatonic harmonies are indigenous Andean. The post-revival costume is also by Duran and Santa Cruz, inspired by Pancho Fierro’s 1800s era watercolors of original zamacueca dancers. The hats are from the colonial plantation; white and red handkerchiefs poke fun at the Spanish fandango and also represent Peru’s life’s blood. Gabriela Shiroma created Mujer Negra in 2010. She learned the dance in Peru from Enrique Barrueto, Julio Casanova, Marlo Melgar, and Lalo Izquierdo, and she has researched this nearly-disappearing form for fifteen years. 2009 PERFORMANCEPresident Manuel Prado banned
the increasingly “wild” carnaval in
the 1940s, but the devils kept coming back. In the mid-50s, visionary
folklorists Jose Duran and Victoria Santa
Cruz staged an ethnographic recreation based on a 19th-century watercolor by
Pancho Fierro. In the 1980's, Lima's Movimiento
Negro Francisco Congo and Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani revived the dance because
of its theatricality, and also as a way to begin examining and erasing colonial
assumptions: as "a collective exploration of embodied social memory,
particularly in relation to questions of ethnicity, violence, and memory in
Peru." In 2004, in Lima's
carnival, the devils took back the streets, as comparsas from all over Lima
arrived to dance Son de los Diablos. The choreography of this piece
represents the dance as it was seen in Peru's
first years of Independence
(1821-1850). The costumes are based on Pancho Fierro's 1800s watercolor. The
wonderfully expressive smaller masks were made in Peru by Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, and the larger mask was made in the Bay Area by
Edmund Badeaux from the Chaskinakuy Andean music group. The traditional son music was recovered from fragments
of guitar melody, and older performers' memories of rhythms on the cajita (wooden collection boxes from
churches, turned into percussion instruments worn around the neck) and the quijada (the jawbone of a donkey, horse,
or mule, scraped or struck to make the molars rattle in their sockets.) For
this piece, the cajón (Afro-Peruvian
wooden box drum) and guitar lead the piece. In honor of People Like Me's 15th Anniversary (World Arts West's arts education program), De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association portrays the brother of
the Sun Goddess—the angry storm god—and his attendant in an abbreviated version of Return of the Sun, 2008 PERFORMANCE
Homenanje a Mis Maestros is A Tribute to the Masters, celebrating the drumming and subtle footwork of Afro-Peruvian Masters of zapateo criollo. Zapateo literally means shoe tapping and zapateo criollo is sometimes called "Peruvian tap dance." Dancers and musicians engage in an animated call and response—playing syncopated hard shoe footwork off the rhythms of guitar, cajón, and vocals. Zapateo criollo originated in the Afro-Peruvian communities of coastal Peru. In the 16th -19th centuries, Spanish colonizers transported thousands of enslaved Africans to Peru, and their labor turned Peruvian ports into bustling centers of immigration and trade. As Afro-Peruvian communities grew, they developed unique styles of dance and music, mixing African rhythms with Creole, Spanish Roma, European, and indigenous Peruvian rhythms. It's said that Africans in Peru invented the cajón—the wooden box drum used in all kinds of Latin American music—as they improvised rhythms on wooden fruit crates. In many neighborhoods instruments were scarce, so musicians and dancers perfected a vocal style simulating a guitar's plunks, plinks, and strums. Zapateo criollo evolved into a contest of skilled footwork, and its judges enforced a complex set of rules. Dancers performed five paradas (footwork patterns) in order; then performed the same paradas in reverse order; then ended with a redoble (footwork roll). Contestants were not allowed to repeat the patterns already danced by them or their competitors. Instead, they began by improvising in a style borrowed from a master dancer, and gradually became known for their own distinctive steps. Traditionally, only men danced the zapateo, so the women dancers of De Rompe y Raja present a twist on tradition. The one male dancer/drummer attempts to take over from the rest of the company, because he "knows how to do it better." As you watch the friendly competition, remember that de rompe y raja meansincredible!When a friend asks, "How was the party last night?" the answer is . . . DE ROMPE Y RAJA!! 2007 PERFORMANCE
2006 PERFORMANCE
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