This participatory session engages with visionary author and scholar Gloria Anzaldua’s use of nepantla, a concept that will support movement improvisation intended to surface one’s liminal identities (nepantlas). This practice intends to provide a space for participants to (re)identify and (re)affirm a place in the world by using their lived experiences as conduits for movement research and expression.

I am interested in exploring how movement artists can employ hidden facets of themselves in the studio. In this session, we will use freewriting prompts to connect with aspects of ourselves that might feel sensitive. To make space for vulnerability, I will not ask you to share your writing; however, I will invite you to share the movement exploration inspired by it.

This session aims to counter how standardization in dance curriculums may affect students’ ability to authentically and artistically express themselves. While demonstrating one way to access and use our differences, we can share new ways for students to relate to the art form.

Some resources to consider prior to the webinar:

Books:

Light in the Dark/ Luz En Lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality by Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Borderlands/ La Frontera by Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Rhetorics of Nepantla, Memory, and the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers: Archival Impulses by Diana Isabel Martinez

Film:

Altar: Cruzando Fronteras, Building Bridges by Paolo Zaccaria and Daniele Basilio

Official Gloria E. Anzaldúa website: https://gloriaeanzaldua.com/

Presesnted By: Yebel Gallegos

Yebel Gallegos is a multi-faceted dance artist from El Paso, Texas. He is dedicated to shifting the standardized dance education young dancers receive in academia. He helped institute Cressida Danza Contemporánea in Yucatán, Mexico serving as a dancer, company teacher, rehearsal director, and academic coordinator for the Conservatorio de Danza de Yucatán. More recently, Yebel concluded a six-year tenure working full-time with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He’s had the fortune to travel internationally as a performer and educator to countries such as South Korea, Mongolia, France, Austria, and Chile. Yebel holds an MFA from the University of Washington and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bard College.