San Diego Dance Troupe Gets Grant To Tour



Credit: Eveoke Dance Theater
Above: Eveoke Dance Theater's studio.


Monday, November 21, 2011
By Beth Accomando, Maureen Cavanaugh

San Diego's Eveoke Dance Theater will be bringing it's production "Las Mariposas" to the Dominican Republic this week. Artistic director and co-creator Erika Malone and lead dancer Jessica Rabanzo-Flores join us in studio to discuss the tour.

Eveoke Dance Theater adapted "Las Mariposas" from Julia Alvarez’s book "In the Time of the Butterflies." The book and dance production both focus on the Mirabel sisters, 4 Dominican women who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and paid a heavy price for their dissidence. Last year, Eveoke was able to bring Alvarez out to San Diego. The writer was so moved by the production that she started the ball rolling on getting the dance company and it's production to the Dominican Republic. This week the dance troupe leaves for the Dominican with more than a dozen dancers.

Malone, who co-created "Las Mariposas," also serves as Eveoke's artistic director. She describes the company as "social activist theater." She says that is often misunderstood as having a political agenda but that's not what it is.

"Our mission is to cultivate compassionate social action," Malone says, "People often forget compassion in that equation. What goes into that compassion is multiple perspectives, listening to wide range of perspectives and then presenting them to an audience."

Guests:

Erika Malone, co-creator of "Las Mariposas" and Eveoke's artistic director.

Jessica Rabanzo-Flores, lead dancer playing Minerva in "Las Mariposas."

Source:
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/nov/21/eveokes-las-mariposas-goes-dominican-republic/

Las Mariposas – Tour to the Dominican Republic

November 26 to December 2 2011

Eveoke’s three-city tour of the Dominican Republic is being sponsored by Centro Franklin, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo.

PERFORMANCES

On Sunday, November 27, 2011, a performance of excerpts from Las Mariposas will be the featured highlight at the closing of the Festival Cultural Hermanas Mirabal in Villa Tapia, a village located in Provincia Mirabal that is covered with murals depicting the lives of the Mirabal sisters.

On Tuesday, November 29, 2011, Eveoke Dance Theatre will perform at the Gran Teatro del Cibao in Santiago, which is one of the national theatres in the Dominican Republic. This performance will be attended by members of the Mirabal family, Julia Alvarez and her husband Bill Eichner, as well as members of the U.S. Embassy staff and members of the Dominican Ministry of Culture. Most importantly, the people of the Dominican Republic will be able to attend the performances as the tickets will be free of charge. Eveoke is thrilled to know that a group from Café Alta Gracia (Julia Alvarez and Bill Eichner’s farm and literacy center) as well as a group of 65 girls and staff from the Mariposa Foundation DR will be in attendance.

On Thursday, December 1, 2011, Eveoke Dance Theatre will perform at the Centro Cultural Mauricio Baez, a theatre constructed by the government of Leonel Fernández, President of the Dominican Republic; it is located in the Villa Juana neighborhood in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Tickets for this performance will also be available free of charge to the general public.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE & ACTIVITES

In addition to our three performances, Eveoke will have the opportunity to participate in a guided mural tour around Villa Tapia, to visit El Museo Hermanas Mirabal in Salcedo that was once the home of the Mirabal sisters, and to visit the original Mirabal home, where Dedé Mirabal, the surviving Mirabal sister still lives. Eveoke will have lunch at Ecoparque de la Paz/Peace Ecopark; this botanical park was designed and dedicated to all the Mirabal sisters.

Eveoke will teach outreach classes with a dance company in Villa Tapia and in Santiago as well as master classes to students in Santo Domingo. Not only will Eveoke be teaching classes, but Eveoke will be also learning Merengue from local teaching artists. Merengue music and dance are integral to the cultural fabric of Dominican life.

To conclude our cultural activities, Eveoke will visit El Museo Memorial de la Resistencia in Santo Domingo and meet with Luisa de Peña Diaz, director and founder of the Museum.

Eveoke’s tour to the Dominican Republic provides an opportunity to live Eveoke’s mission internationally through evocative performance, arts education, and community building; it will be a true cultural exchange.

http://eveoke.org/2011/las-mariposas-tour-to-the-dominican-republic/

I believe we might be on to something here. Different and away from the traditional tourist trap of sun, sand and booze, cultural tourism might be another possible option for the tourism industry to begin developing .

Yeah, let them all bring it!

Yeah, Cirque de Soleil; Big Apple Circus; Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus; The Rockettes; The Royal and the Bolshoi Ballet; The New York Philharmonic; etc. All those wonderful shows that play at Madison square Garden. Now, could you imagine Holiday on Ice in DR? That would be so cool!

Eveoke Dance Tours to Dominican Republic: Behind the Scene TV
Story



Posted: Monday, November 28, 2011 11:27 am | Updated: 6:13 pm, Mon Nov 28, 2011.
By Kelly Bennett

Your first reaction to hearing a bleak story of murder and dictatorship may not be to dance. But local dance company Eveoke tells such a story in one of its most popular pieces, "Las Mariposas." It focuses on the Mirabal sisters' resistance to Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo, for which three of the sisters were murdered in 1960.
The company took a year and a half to adapt Julia Alvarez's novel, "In the Time of Butterflies," into the dance piece. The dancers intended the piece for a local audience, reprising it this fall at the La Jolla Playhouse. But when they performed it for Alvarez at the University of San Diego last fall, the author got an idea.
She began writing letters to the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic pushing them to invite the dance group to perform the story for Dominicans. This weekend, the troupe left for a weeklong tour to three cities in the Caribbean nation. We visited their rehearsal to learn what the dancers and company leaders were thinking as they prepared to take their story to its original setting, where the surviving Mirabal sister will watch one of the performances.
In the clip, you’ll hear from Ericka Moore, Eveoke’s resident choreographer; Erika Malone, the troupe’s artistic director; and Nikki Dunnan, executive director.

(THERE'S ALSO A NON-YOUTUBE VIDEO)

View more videos at: http://nbcsandiego.com.
I'm Kelly Bennett, the arts editor for VOSD. You can reach me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/arts/article_33cb0508-19f7-11e1-84fe-001cc4c03286.html