ArtesAméricas

Over the summer, UT’s Department of Theatre & Dance Professor Rusty Cloyes spent several weeks in Cartagena, Colombia spearheading the most recent collaboration between The University of Texas at Austin and El Colegio del Cuerpo (“The College of the Body”), Colombia´s first contemporary dance choreographic formation center and educational program for disadvantaged children. With the [...]

Phase III of the “Canción del Cuerpo” project has arrived! Nine members of El Colegio del Cuerpo from Cartagena, Colombia have returned to Austin for two final weeks of rehearsals in preparation for a series of performances as part of Dance Repertory Theatre’s annual spring concert. The concert will feature the world-premier of “The Rope: [...]

Following the successful open rehearsal on Saturday night, the creative team behind “Canción del Cuerpo” went out to celebrate. Over dinner, the group took on the looming task of coming up with a name for the new piece. Choreographers Álvaro Restrepo and Lyn Wiltshire, along with an “advisory panel” consisting of myself, El Colegio Co-Director [...]

After 8 days of rehearsals in Cartagena, the time came to take a step back and allow others to observe the work-in-progress. On Saturday, the local daily newspaper, El Universal, ran an article on the “Canción del Cuerpo” project and invited the public to attend open rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday evening at El Colegio’s [...]

[My apologies for the lapse in posts: I learned the hard way of my hard drive’s disdain for tropical heat and humidity.] On this day, the group ventured to the nearby Island of Barú. The trip provided a change of setting for the dancers, as well as further context to understand the challenging yet inspirational [...]

Things are beginning to come together in the studio, as the new piece takes shape. In between rehearsals, members of the UT production/design team visited Teatro Heredia.  Jhon Leon, El Colegio del Cuerpo’s Technical Director, led the tour of Cartagena’s most famous theater, which he helped restore during the mid-1990s.

On their day off, students in the “Canción del Cuerpo” Project participate in various cultural activities to better understand the world in which El Colegio’s dancers live and work. On this day, the group visited a rural school in Bayunca where El Colegio operates a dance program. The group then toured the site of the [...]

A brief video clip from yesterday afternoon’s rehearsal of “Canción del Cuerpo”:

Upon their arrival in Austin for Phase I of the “Canción del Cuerpo” Project, members of El Colegio del Cuerpo exited the terminal at the Austin airport to find a stretch limo waiting to take them on a quick driving tour of the city and finally to their hotel.  They were overwhelmed with excitement. When [...]