A dance show in Miami that celebrates Hispanic women and culture

This content was published on Mar 27, 2023 – 14:53
March 27, 2023 – 14:53
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Miami, March 27 (EFE). – Miami’s Peter London International Dance Company, which prides itself on the diversity of origins, colors and personalities of its dancers, celebrates Hispanic women and culture in its new show, “Women’s Dance Voices: The Rising,” which will be shown this week in Miami.

Mercedes Sosa, Violeta Parra, Florida Street in Buenos Aires, tango and its origins have a place in the show, which will be presented to the public on April 1 at the Coral Gables Art Preserve and consists of eight choreographies.

“I couldn’t celebrate Hispanic culture being from Port of Spain and residing in Miami,” said founder Peter London, who was a principal dancer in the Martha Graham pioneer company and a professor at New York’s Alvin Ailey School. EFE York, during a rehearsal for “Women’s Dance Voices: Dawn.”

Diversity is the watchword and hallmark of the contemporary dance company created by Trinidadian London in Miami 13 years ago with a $120,000 grant from the Knight Foundation.

Diversity against discrimination

Seeing its dancers on stage is the opposite of the ballet as a reproduction of some of the images of classical ballet. There are female dancers who are taller than their male partners in a dance for two, female dancers dressed as male dancers, and a female female dancer with long hair and dreadlocks.

When asked during a rehearsal for the new show if he feels discriminated against in the dance world for being of Afro-Caribbean descent, Peter London answered in the affirmative.

This, he said, is why he is determined to avoid symmetry, without taking his eyes off Camilo Toro, who dances alone in “The Rising” piece “Gracias a la vida”, inspired by the famous Chilean song Violetta Parra.

With the powerful background vocal of Argentinian Mercedes Sosa, who promoted the song, Toro told EFE that he’s Chilean like Parra and has only been part of Peter London Global Dace Company (PLGDC) for two months.

The Chilean dancer, who arrived in the United States a year and a half ago in search of more opportunities, said he was very grateful to have chosen a piece that had “special meaning” to him.

London said three of the choreographies in the new show are the work of Miami-born choreographers as a way to celebrate US Women’s Month.

They are Kashia Kancey, who created a work for two dancers commissioned by Venezuelan Cristina Moya-Palacios, and Marion Skye Brook, who presents a work with a score performed by violinist Ari Urban,

In addition, a new version of the contemporary tango “Que encuentra en los arrabales” by Melissa Fernandez Verdesia, former principal of the New York Hispanic Ballet and regular collaborator with the London company, is presented.

The program also includes “Steppe Tango” by Armando Gonzalez, the Grand Ballet Director of Switzerland, “La calle Florida de Buenos Aires”, a work by London, and “Calypso Bacchanal”.

In a statement to EFE, Fernandez Verdesia noted, “The work produced at PLGDC empowers not only the Latino, African, and Caribbean communities of South Florida, but also women artists who need a way to share their voices and get creative.”

London said Peter London Global Dance Company has embarked on a program of performances and collaborations abroad since last year, which began in Trinidad and Tobago and will continue this year in Martinique. EFE

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