The Dance Complex + Cultural Agora Architects

 in partnership with the collaborating artists 

present

¡Bordes! Borders! ¡Bordes! 

on June 17, June 18, 2022, 8pm at The Dance Complex @ Canal in Kendall Square’s Canal District. 

To ensure accessibility, tickets are free, with donations accepted

Tickets: RSVP to secure tickets (donations welcome): https://bordersboston.com/tickets

Dive into the imaginal, poetic, and dreamlike psychological landscapes of 3 Boston artists and 4 San Juan Puerto Rico artists spanning borders in a performance that culminates a year of virtually dreaming together.

¡Bordes! Borders! ¡Bordes! Is an experimental dance theater collaborative performance between 3 Boston Artists and 4 San Juan, PR Artists!

These performances are the culmination of a yearlong online collaboration between dance artists from Boston and San Juan PR artists to create and produce an experimental dance theater piece. Immerse yourself in an hour-long journey that is both collective and individual, inviting you into becoming a part of the process. 

Emily Beattie, Jimena Bermejo, Callie Chapman, Beatriz Irizarry Gauthier, Cristina Lugo Candelas, Marili Pizarro Latorre and along with composer Guarionex Morales-Matos invite audiences to witness our performance in this imagined world in which we tackle the questions: What could seven artists 1700 miles apart, who have never met in real life, dream up? Where do our emotional, physical, geographical borders end and another’s begin? Anne Dresbach transforms the space of Dance Complex @ Canal with her lighting design. 

In addition to the support of the two presenting organizations, the program is supported in part by a grant from Cambridge Arts, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency; and a Live Arts Boston Grant from the Boston Foundation. To encourage accessibility to all, BioMed Realty is proud to sponsor a pay what you can / $0 tickets program removing the financial barrier of ticket cost. 

What: ¡Bordes! Borders! ¡Bordes!

Who: Presented by Agora Cultural Architects and The Dance Complex, in partnership with the collaborating artists Emily Beattie, Callie Chapman, Jimena Bermejo, Marili Pizarro Latorre, Beatriz Irizarry Gauthier, Cristina Lugo Candelas, and Guarionex Morales-Matos

Where: The Dance Complex @ Canal, 650 E Kendall St, Cambridge, MA

When: June 17, June 18, 2022, 8pm

Details: Experience an experimental dance theater collaborative performance between 3 Boston Artists and 4 San Juan, PR Artists!

COVID Policy: All audience members must be masked at all times.

Contact

Jimena Bermejo

617-372-2079

jimenabermejo@gmail.com

Nikki Blades

nikki@dancecomplex.org 

For more about the project: https://bordersboston.com/

The Dance Complex: www.dancecomplex.org

Agora Cultural Architects: https://www.culturalagora.com/

Link to folder of Press-Ready photos.

 

BIOS

San Juan, Puerto Rico

BEATRIZ IRIZARRY

Beatriz Irizarry is a Puerto Rican contemporary dancer, choreographer, performer and video artist. She studied ballet and contemporary dance from an early age. In 2002, she joined,as a dancer and choreographer, Hincapié, the renowned dance company directed by Petra Bravo. Her choreographic, performance and video art pieces have been presented in Puerto Rico and internationally (United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Germany, Montreal, New York City, and Spain). She has collaborated with renowned puertorrican artists, such as: Kianí del Valle, Oscar Mestey, Nelson Rivera, Viveca Vázquez, Quintín Rivera Toro, and Andanza, among others. Since 2015, together with Cristina Lugo and Marili Pizarro, she has been part of the multidisciplinary collective of precarious aesthetics La Trinchera. 

CRISTINA LUGO

Cristina Lugo studied in Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico since childhood and later enrolled in contemporary dance curses with Petra Bravo at the University of Puerto Rico. She later joined Bravo’s dance company Hincapié where she worked as dancer and choreographer for over a decade. In 2011, Lugo joined contemporary dance company Andanza under the direction of Lolita Villanua. As a professional and independent artist, Lugo has performed in theaters in the United States as well as in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, France and Spain.

GUARIONEX MORALES-MATOS 

In 2001, he founded Orfeón San Juan Bautista, a professional secular choir currently under his co-direction. As an arranger and composer, he has written more than a hundred pieces of music, most of which are a cappella choral works. Moreover, his opus includes art songs, film scores, choral-instrumental music, choral-symphonic works, ballet music, opera and a cappella adaptations of popular and folkloric music from Ibero-America. His compositions have been performed in Spain, Italy, Poland, France, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Canada, the United States, and Austria. 

In 2014, he wrote Fault Lines, a piece for sopraninos commissioned by plastic artists of Allora & Calzadilla. It premiered in New York, during the exhibition of the same name, and is now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In collaboration with Allora & Calzadilla, he also composed the soundtracks for two short films called Breaking into Trunks (2017) and Foreign in a Domestic Sense (2017).  

For eight years (2004-2012), Morales Matos served as radio announcer, script writer, and producer of Mayormente a capella, a radio series specialized in choral music which aired on Radio Universidad, the University of Puerto Rico’s radio station. Guarionex Morales Matos holds a bachelor’s degree in public communications and a master’s degree in cultural management and administration, both from the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. 

MARILI ‘MIM’ PIZARRO

Marili Pizarro is an independent visual and performance artist from Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The focus of her work and practice merges space and body specificity with choreography and visual media. She describes her work as born from precarity and the redefinition of space. She also works as set designer, graphic artist, costume and makeup designer and photographer. She has presented as dancer and choreographer for Contemporary dance company Hincapié, La guareta and La trinchera. Also as an improvisation artist for Piso proyecto by artist Noemi Segarra. Pizarro has presented her work as an independent artist in Puerto Rico and internationally. 

Boston

EMILY BEATTIE

Emily Beattie is a Somerville based dance artist with a decades-long relationship with the deep play that technology and movement can evoke. Her performance work has been supported by the ICA Boston, Boston CyberArts Festival, Ammerman Center for the Arts, Brown University, Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery in NY, Los Angeles’ Pieter Performance Space, UCLA’s Fowler Museum, The Hammer Museum, and internationally in festivals in Japan and Italy. She is a recipient of the Boston Foundation’s Live Arts Boston grant and a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in Choreography. She serves her community through work with the Somerville Arts Council. For more please see emilybeattie.com.

JIMENA BERMEJO 

Jimena Bermejo is a multidisciplinary artist and educator from Mexico City, whose practice oscillates between dance and performance art.  Her practice is concerned with the examination of race, trauma, feelings of being an “other,” and various aspects of human relations. Jimena’s performances range from abstract and sculptural to visceral and provocative. Being an educator comprises a significant and beloved aspect of her practice and various collaborative projects, often facilitating movement pieces and presentations for people with little to no previous experience. Jimena holds a BFA in Dance from The Boston Conservatory and an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Studio for Interrelated Media. She has performed nationally and internationally including at The Cathedral Arts Festival in Belfast, U. K,  Le Lieu in Quebec, The Judson Church in NYC, Teatro Dallas 19th International Festival, in Dallas TX, and Montserrat College of Art Gallery.  She is faculty at Berklee College of Music and at the College of the Holy Cross where she also serves as the Director of the Dance Program. She has recently been appointed the Co-director of Mobius Artist Group. www.jimenabermejo.com

CALLIE CHAPMAN

Callie is a multidisciplinary designer, video artist, choreographer, and curator. Based in greater Boston, Callie was awarded the 2020 choreography fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in Choreography. She has worked as a dancer with Prometheus Dance for over 20 years. Callie’s video and projection design has been commissioned for companies such as Odyssey Opera, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Prometheus Dance, Pa Sy Dance, XFest, and Corrector Records. Callie also has worked with companies such as American Repertory Theatre/Company One, Anikaya Dance, among others. Enjoying the thrill of live performances (digital or otherwise), Callie’s affinity for combining live dance performance and generative video art is where her interest lies. www.calliechapman.com / www.zoedance.org

ANNE DRESBACH/Production Management and Lighting Design  

Anne Dresbach works as a Senior Lighting Designer at VDA Productions. Anne graduated from Emerson College in 2004 and is currently based in Malden, MA. Anne has designed for several area dance companies and for theater, including Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

AGORA CULTURAL ARCHITECTS

We are the partners of Latinx Arts and culture. We create, empower and promote the sustainability of the makers of Latin American Culture. ACA partners with artistic talent, producers and institutions like you to promote and enable a diverse cultural landscape. We find grant opportunities for Latinx-driven artists and organizations, write and submit grant proposals, and partner with grantees to bring those projects to life. We find and manage accessible ways to produce for independent creators and organizations. In times where isolation is the norm, we help creators and organizations artistically engage with new audiences and communities. ACA offers consulting for Latinx Audience Development and Community Engagement, Artist Booking and Music Consulting Services.

THE DANCE COMPLEX

The Dance Complex has been described as a United Nations of Dance. The 30 year old organization continues to offer dance classes and performances in genres and styles from all corners of the world. The DC has journeyed through the pandemic building back to 100+ classes per week, offering performances in its Julie Ince Thompson Theater, the intimate Studio 7 and at their pop-up residency space, provided through the generosity of BioMed Realty, Complex@ Canal. The DC also serves the Boston/Cambridge area’s dance artists with professional development opportunities, including its new BLOOM Residency Pilot beginning this fall.

¡Bordes! Borders! ¡Bordes! Is also the product of collaboration between Agora Cultural Architects and The Dance Complex, and their directors, Elsa Mosquera Sterenberg and Peter DiMuro, respectively. Coming together, these two organizations in turn invited the collaborating artists to experiment and explore together.