This year's Celebrando 2007 brings to life Puerto Rico's cultural traditions
with a production that celebrates the 10th anniversary of Puerto Rican
Folkloric Dance! With this project we bring back four beloved Maestros,
recognized experts with over 30 years of tenure in Puerto Rican folklore,
for master-level music and dance workshops of Puerto Rico's traditional
styles and a culminating performance including Modesto Cepeda (Director,
Escuela de Bomba y Plena), Joaqin Nieves (Director, Guateque
Ballet Folklorico de Puerto Rico), Dr. Emanuel Dufrasne-Gonzalez,
(renowned Puerto Rican ethnomusicologist and Director of Paracumbe), and
Nelie Lebron-Robles (Director of Paracumbe). The Maestros are delighted to be
part of this project, not only because they are proud of PRFDance's growth
over the last decade during which they have been training PRFDance's Director,
but also because, for each of these Maestros this
will be the second project with PRFDance. They are looking
forward to the opportunity to return to Austin to personally reengage
with our entire company, and to refresh and advance our training in Bomba,
Plena, Bailes de las Montanas, and Bailes de Salon.
With an exciting and ambitious project in the plan,
we started things off on March 22-26, 2007, when we were honored to bring the
first of the four Maestros Joaquin Nieves, Director of Guateque de Puerto Rico,
and members of his company (a cuatrista, a guitarista, and more guys to dance with)
to Austin for a week-long, master-level workshop on Bailes de Salon (Danza, Mazurka, Vals) and fun dramatized estampas set to Plena and Seis music. Joaquin has been
training PRFDance Director since 1999 and enjoyed
returning to Austin to see the growth in the company. He said that the repertorio
we have built here in 10 years took him 20 to build for his own company.
Enjoy the memories of our exciting workshop while we polish up for the next phase our our project -- when Joaquin and company returns, and Modesto Cepeda and Paracumbe arrive for more workshop fun and our joint performance of
Celebrando 2007 - 10 Year Anniversary Maestros Reunion on June 23-24, 2007.
