| Session 17 | Dancing Spirits: Female Orisha Dance Workshop |
| Andrea R. Thompson and Marietta Ulacia | |
| Traces of a “Tri”chotomy: Three Female Archetypes in Afro-Cuban Orisha Dancing | |
This lecture-demonstration will provide a framework for interpretation of the female presence in Afro-Cuban Orisha dancing through the three most prevalent female archetypes; Oshun, Yemaya, and Oya. The workshop will accomplish this goal through building an understanding of Orisha Dance as a form of movement, examining the roles of the above mentioned female archetypes and exploring their characteristic gestures, their development and stories, through movement. Participants will come away with a concrete understanding of the importance and basic history of Orisha dancing and the ability to dissect the three common Female Archetypes. In addition, participants will be able to appreciate the relevance of Orisha dance in the general Latin and Caribbean culture and understand how this movement type influences many other dance forms. |
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| Andrea R. Thompson has woven African dance forms into her body for the last 15 years. Andrea studies, teaches, and performs Afro-Brazilian Samba, North African Belly Dance and Afro-Cuban. She has danced with “Sarava" an Afro-Brazilian company, "AshéMoyubba " and ?Alafia? Afro-Cuban folkloric companies. She currently teaches Afro-Cuban Dance at the University of the District of Columbia and is a board member of the Latin American Folk Institute. Andrea has allowed her politics of movement to take her to five different continents, fulfilling the roles of dance instructor, student, and patron. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Howard University. | |
| Marietta Ulacia, a Cuban-born founder and Director of the Latin American Folk Institute (LAFI). She is a musician, dancer and arts educator who has been teaching and performing Afro-Cuban dance in the Mid-Atlantic area for over 10 years, specializing in the Yorùbá tradition. She developed a dance program for children K-5 for the Children?s Museum in Baltimore and is currently working in New York City. Ms. Ulacia studied music at the prestigious Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in Havana, and folkloric dance with the Folklorico Nacional in Cuba. She holds a M.A. in Arts Management from American University in Washington, DC. | |
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