La Ciudad Perdida

A little history lesson: In 700 AD, the Tayrona people found their way to a beautiful piece of mountainous rainforest where they built a city full of temples and homes made from stone and palm thatch.  They lived there peacefully until the Spanish conquest brought disease and violence their way in the 1500s.  The city was then abandoned and overtaken by the surrounding plant-life.  In 1976, grave robbers hunting for gold discovered what was soon named the Lost City (Ciudad Perdida).  The Colombian government sent in archeologists to study these ruins of what is known to be Colombia's oldest indigenous civilization.  It is now a destination for adventure-seeking travelers to the Sierra Nevada National Park.  

In October of 2011, I hiked for 5 days through the rainforest, with 10 other foreign visitors and a local guide, to discover the Lost City for myself.  I was with my friend Serena. During the trek we took on incredible uphill and downhill trails, climbed up and down waterfalls, crossed the Rio Buritaka (sometimes ankle-deep and sometimes waist-deep), passed local indigenous people and their communities, slept in simple hammock camps, and fought off the bugs and the rain.  It was a truly incredible experience... enjoy the photos!

Hammock Camp!  A very cozy place to rest our sore muscles at the end of each day 

Those hiking clothes never had a chance to dry in that rainforest climate! 

One of many hiking breaks in the river

A Kogi village still used for community ceremonies

Serena and Me tired after along up-hill haul

One of many trail waterfalls; posing with our fellow adventurers!

Where the rainforest becomes farm fields 

Parque Tayrona

Colombia's most gorgeous beaches are on the Caribbean coast, contained within the boundaries of Parque Tayrona.  This national park sits right next to the Sierra Nevada National Park, home to the country's highest peaks.  This close proximity of snow-capped Andean peaks and white-sand, tropical beaches makes the region very unique and stunningly gorgeous.  I took advantage of a week of student vacation to head north with my friend Serena to explore the park and beyond.

Arriving by horse on the park's muddy trail

I can't resist a handstand opportunity on the beach!

A Colombia Dance Tour, Part IIII

Images from the Fables performance, and rehearsal process, for the Botanical Garden Show.

Karen as the dancing Camel.

Alexis as the Ostrich in Love

Amy and Alexis as the Brave Lobster and her Coward Crab friend.

Rehearsing with the flowers for the final show

The Trees bowing after a successful performance

The forest animals!

New friend! Alirio, my "tio" here, and Gils made friends over drinks at our favorite bar a t the end of the tour.    The dancers were happy to share the stories from the trip and talk of possible plans for future tours.

The last night in Colombia.  Their tour included performances at universities, malls, schools, and international mainstages.  They did workshops with almost 100 school children in the cities of Medellin, Manizales, Pereira and Armenia.  I know they touched the lives of thousands of people in their short time visiting my South-American second home.  I am proud of the work we all accomplished together and am endlessly grateful to the people who helped us make it happen, especially all of our new partners and friends at the Colombo Americano.  Here's to planning the next ACDT adventure in Colombia!

A Colombian Dance Tour, Part III

After performances, sight-seeing, and soaking in the thermal hot spring of Manizales, we took a 2-hr. van ride to the even-smaller mountain town of Pereira.  He I am at the city-overlook with one of our Colombo-Americano coordinators, Lina.  Throughout the tour, the Colombo's staff in all of the cities we visited were knowledgeable, talented, and enthusiastic hosts who cared for all of our needs and the experience smooth and comfortable for all.

In Pereira, we did a children's dance workshop with a group of at-risk youth from a community of families displaced by violence in the Pacific-coast region of Chocó.  This small workshop was full of energy and Giles, and the other ACDT dancers, did an excellent job, as always, of helping them all feel like confident dancers.

Karen dancing with the students in the workshop.

In the "audience" watching all of the choreography projects that came out of the kid's workshop in Pereira.

Giles and Amy dancing with their group at the kids workshop.

A Colombia Dance Tour, Part II

After the project with Medellin's Red de Danza was over, I boarded a little-bitty plane with the company and we headed to Manizales in the Coffee Region of Colombia.

We explored Manizales by hanging high overhead in the city's cable cars that provide a beautiful view of this Andean town.  ACDT's dancing girls!

Giles, Karen and I had fun integrating ourselves into Manizales' interesting public art!

ACDT was invited to perform twice at the Manizales International Theater Festival-- one of South America's largest and most prestigious annual theater festivals   Here, we are unloading the huge costume bags in front of the Confamiliares Theater, with the festival banners with the cool cats behind the gang.

The theater festival's logo for 2011.  We were fortunate enough to see several of the other performances going on in Manizales for this festival while we were there for the weekend.  Hopefully, ACDT will be back in the upcoming years!

On-stage Q-and-A after a performance with Giles (the monkey) Karen (the bear), Lola (the pig waiter), and Alexis (the lady bug).

Karen as the Tap Dancing Hippo.

A lesson on how to dance like a ladybug with audience members and Alexis Miller-- resident ladybug.

A Colombia Dance Tour

In October 2010, I started the process of finding an organization to sponsor a tour for the dance company I danced with until moving to South America, Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater.  The Colombo-Americano Cultural Center took the bait and I spent almost a year coordinating for the Asheville and Medellin sides of what would be a hugely successful 2-week, multi-city tour of children's workshops and dance performances here in Colombia.  ACDT was here Sept. 8 - 24, and here's what they did:

Me, Esperanza Carvajal (front row, left), and members of the performance group of the Red de Danza, Medellin.  This Dance Network is a city-funded program that offers free dance classes in many of Medellin's neighborhoods-- including those of the lowest socio-economic strata.  The best of the best are invited to dance with the performance group.  ACDT worked for 5 days with 40 of these kids, 8-17 yrs old, integrating them into their show Fables, based on the Arnold Lobel children's book.  Esperanza is their fearless, energetic, and very kind director.

Rehearsal with ACDT and the Red de Danza always included some kind of movement/choreography game.

The child-dancers of the Red de Danza surprised us everyday with their creativity, openness,  and incredible work-ethic.  They stepped up to every challenge we through their way!

As showtime neared, parents and friends of the Red de Danza came out to build the costumes for the animals, sand dunes, flowers, trees,  pig-waiters, and all the other characters in their show.   Barbara Jahn's (my artistic roommate) hands are seen here wielding the fake-animal fur into submission for our forest-animal costumes. 

Parents helping to make the flower costumes.

After 5 long days of rehearsal and costume-building, ACDT and the Red de Danza performed FABLES on the mainstage at Medellin's Botanical Garden.  The show was a part of the city's very popular Book Festival, and this book-based performance fit right in.  The children danced along side their new American, dancing friends, and the audience, full of children, loved it!  The dancers are Karen George and Lola York (front row, left), Amy Borskey and Alexis Miller (middle row, left), and Giles Collard (in stripes, middle row).  I'm in the back row, beaming after what was possible one of the best things I'd ever seen on a stage!!

Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater with Jessy Kronenberg and Barbara Jahn... what an ambitious, artistic bunch!