After 43 years as director of the IU African American Dance Company, Professor Iris Rosa’s dream of taking students to Cuba is coming true.
The company will travel to Santiago, Cuba, to participate in a weeklong international music and dance festival in July.
Read what Professor Rosa had to say about the trip:
What is the story behind African American Dance Company’s trip to Cuba?
Professor Rosa: The story behind why we are traveling to Cuba is because of the efforts of Milagros Ramirez, one of our Annual Dance Workshop professional practitioners. Over the years she really enjoyed the workshop, its focus, diasporic nature, and engagement. She thought it was very important to show what AADC has been doing at IU to the international dance community, particularly at the Festival del Caribe in Santiago.
For her to say AADC’s work needs to be presented at an international festival is affirmation that what we’re doing is significant. Through her efforts we received a letter of invitation from the Ministry of Culture to participate in the festival. This is a great way to be introduced to the artistic community of Santiago.
Tell us more about the Festival del Caribe and what the students will be doing.
Professor Rosa: This year is the 37th annual festival. The international dance and music community will be there, including groups from Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, and other countries. For the students to be exposed to an international community will be very educational.
The festival focuses on the cultural, historical, and social aspects of the performing arts as well as dance and music that is representative of Cuba overall. We’ll be experiencing dances from the eastern part of Cuba, like Son and Gaga, as well as some of the songs and dances of the Yoruba culture. Cuba also has a very strong contemporary modern dance presence. So, it will be a big mix of experiences through music and dance.
AADC will be performing “Anatomy of Freedom,” the four-part piece they performed at the Spring Concert. They will also take classes with professional Cuban dance companies every day. That’s going to be a very special collaboration. The students will be able to discern the vastness of dance in the Cuban culture. It really is a lifetime of study.
What do you hope the students will gain from their experiences in Cuba?
Professor Rosa: What I think they should gain is an appreciation for the opportunity to be able to connect with an international community and see how other places operate in the arts.
I especially want the students to see how the arts are so important to life. Here is America we have this notion that the arts aren’t a part of life. But then you interact with other communities and you see that the performing arts aren’t separate to our lives. When we dance, it is because we’re connected somehow spiritually, socially, culturally, historically, diasporically, and politically to that movement. Hopefully the students will see and understand how the arts are part of the diasporic community and cannot be separated.
I especially want the students to see how the arts are so important to life. Here is America we have this notion that the arts aren’t a part of life. But then you interact with other communities and you see that the performing arts aren’t separate to our lives.
They also need to learn tolerance. We live in a privileged society. Part of that tolerance is understanding people in third-world countries and the ways that they have to work without resources. When they come back, how can some of that understanding remain in their blood? The students will be able to look at life in a broader and wider spectrum outside of their own understanding.
What does this trip mean to you, especially now at the end of your 43-year tenure at IU?
Professor Rosa: Cuba was one of the countries I always wanted to take my students to because it’s my research area. My work in Cuba increased my vocabulary about dance and my ability to select and integrate movements from another black diasporic culture into the conversation about the black diaspora and the black dance aesthetic. For me it just expanded what I could do and the stories I could tell about black folks of the diaspora.
Cuba was one of the countries I always wanted to take my students to because it’s my research area.
This is a trip that I have not taken since the late 90s, so it does mean a lot to me taking my students to a place where I have done so much work. The students will be able to see what I’ve been doing when I’m not here at IU and how engaged I am with Cuban artists. They will be able to make those connections and expand their movement vocabularies and movement experiences.
I have to thank Dr. Wimbush, vice president for diversity, equity, and multicultural affairs, for his vision and understanding of why the African American Arts Institute must be internationalized. Support from Provost Lauren Robel, VP for International Affairs David Zaret, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Larry Singel also affirms that they believe the AAAI ensembles are important to IU.
I retired on May 31, but this time before the next AADC director comes in was an opportunity to give another experience to the students. Then it will be the students’ responsibility to decide what they will do with this experience. Hopefully they will carry it with them throughout the years.
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