The Watermill Center and our Latino Outreach Committee invite you to a workshop by Alvaro Restrepo. Mr. Restrepo, a Colombian dancer, choreographer and founder of El Colegio del Cuerpo, will share his vision of dance as education, expressing his belief in the power of the arts to influence social change and tackling identity issues of young people. This event is free of charge.
Mr. Restrepo will lead a workshop for young people and teachers titled Caribbean MA that will use movement to help participants form their own identity. Caribbean MA is part of Mr. Restrepo’s larger Project MA: My Body My Home, which emphasizes the Japanese meaning of the word ma: pause, interval, space/time. Issues that are often present but difficult for the young to discuss, such as gender identity, family violence, and peer pressure will be addressed through dance, concentration, relaxation, and coordination exercises.
The Watermill Center is seeking two groups of Latino or dual-language students for this workshop. As Mr. Restrepo’s school joins groups of young people from different areas of Cartegena, we would like to bring together groups from different sections of the East End of Long Island. Participation is limited to 25 students. Please RSVP to Kristin Fabrizio, Humanities Coordinator, at (631) 726- 4628.
About Alvaro Restrepo
Mr. Restrepo is a Colombian dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue who studied philosophy, literature, music, and theatre before discovering dance in 1980 after seeing a performance of Jennifer Muller/The Works in Bogotá. For two years, he worked with street kids in Bogotá and began to understand the power of the arts as a tool for education and social change. Invited by Ms. Muller, he received a grant from the Colombian government to travel to New York, where he studied with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Cho Kyoo-Hyun. In 1986, Mr. Restrepo began his artistic career, premiering his first piece at La MaMa. In 1992, he was appointed Director of the Superior Arts Academy in Bogotá where he created the first professional dance program in Colombia. In 2005, Mr. Restrepo was appointed Director of Hamburg’s Summer International Theatre Festival, and in 2007 he received the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award for his article “Memories of the Flesh,” a poignant meditation on his school years in a North American Benedictine school in Bogotá.
About El Colegio del Cuerpo
In 1997, Mr. Restrepo moved back to Cartagena de Indias, where he founded an artistic, social, and educational center called tyhe School of the Body (El Colegio del Cuerpo) with French dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue Marie France Delieuvin. El Colegio del Cuerpo uses contemporary dance to convey artistic, social, and human values to the inhabitants of Cartagena de Indias’ most deprived areas. He has toured extensively with the children from the School, receiving international recognition for the impact of this innovative initiative in the educational and artistic milieu. As of today, El Colegio del Cuerpo’s work has been seen in more than 40 countries and featured in the New York Times, PBS, The Guardian, Le Monde, and El País. In 2008, El Colegio del Cuerpo received a $1 million donation from the Japanese Social Development Fund through the World Bank, to expand the methodology and artistic/human philosophy of El Colegio on Cartagena’s educational system.
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