Piñata 45: The End of Her Rope is not just a show. The women (and our male allies) in this production are bringing forth powerful stories of resilience, fragility and survival. Our rehearsals are sometimes about product and aesthetic value…. and sometimes about process, healing, showing more of our lived experience and about personal growth. As artists, we are developing the craft of blending these worlds. As director of PDC, I don’t believe in making art that doesn’t move us forward… or move us through…. or touch on what is untouched- both within ourselves and in the lives of our audience. Piñata Dance Collective (AKA PussyFleet) is making an impact and we are counting on seeing you in the theater May 11-12.
Why do we place so much value on beauty? How is beauty defined?
What lengths will we go to attain it?
How do we use this platform to understand more about ourselves as females, people of color, survivors of abuse, gender-based harassment or as artists?
How do we respond to an overtly misogynist president?
In addition to being humorous, quirky, stunningly beautiful, painfully true, uncomfortably grotesque, a courageous reveal of tenderness and, at times, confusing material regarding victimization and empowerment, there are high financial costs and countless hours of preparation. There are many ways you can support us as we birth this beast.
Please donate to our GoFundMe campaign, purchase tickets and share our FB event page on Social media. Click on the campaign for more info and photos!
A woman dangles at the end of her rope in an historically suspended tale of Piñatas, Miss Universe and the fatal body politics of the feminine. Joined by her dynamic cast of grotesque-burlesque modern dancers, the PussyFleet ensemble moves through 500 years of re-appropriated rituals that involve breaking open, over-consumption, body manipulation and a re-framing of sex, race and power.
Piñata 45: The End of Her Rope
Dance Mission Theater 3316 24th Street, San Francisco
“Piñata 45”, a sarcastic reference to the president, as well as, to the dance company, is a breakable subject. While the former owner of Miss Universe and accused perpetrator of sexual harassment and domestic violence sits in the white house, the number of women speaking out against violence is rising.For the Piñata Dance Collective, the body becomes a site and process of showing how resilient and fragile the body of the feminine can be.
The show moves in three parts with dancers, Liz Duran Boubion, Issachar Curbeeon, Ronja Ver, Andreina Maldonado, Kristen Rulifson, Dominique Nigro, Alyah Baker and live music by Chelsea Kirby.
Part I, Ms. Boubion’s personification of a human piñata hanging from a bungee cord, tells a tragic yet triumphant story of a tenacious piñata with the compensatory survival skills of innocence, generosity, humor and beauty. As a 2nd generation Chicana and survivor of sexual abuse, she dances with her blindfolded dancers with bouts of cultural dementia, erotic outbursts and broken English and Spanish.Bouncing between the trappings of exploitation and exaltation, her super powers of animal shape shifting and rapid proliferation may triumph. Co-directed by Zoe Klein.
Part II: Miss Universe.A choreographed memorial of beauty contestants dance on a mirror, highlighting the commodification and manipulation of women’s bodies contextualized by cosmetic surgery, suicide, sexual harassment and domestic violence. The Pageant includes the story of “Zinzi” written and performed by Issachar Curbeeon and dancer Alyah Baker, reflecting on racism in the mirror of an African American girl with body dysmorphia.Dancer, Ronja Ver performs a piece about Ivana Trump as it relates to her own insights into domestic violence. And the story of Miss Venezuela is danced by Andreina Maldonado exposing the shadow of cosmetic surgery and a repressive government regime.
Part III: #DontGrab. A response to trump’s ‘grab her by the pussy’ conversation that went viral in 2016. The first iteration of this dance was performed by Boubion’s PussyFleet dancers last November during the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers and will be developed further in Piñata 45: The End of Her Rope. Musical composition by David Molina.
Come this May, stories of survival in the realm of the female body politic will be articulated through dance, re-mothering stories in the #MeToo movement and a human piñata at the end of her rope.
Piñata45 : Exalted, Consumed, Destroyed
May 11-12, 2018
Co-Presented by Piñata Dance Collective and Dance Mission Theater
Last November, the hot pink PussyFleet, choreographed by Liz Duran Boubion for the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreograpers (FLACC) thrilled audiences in a fiercely provocative response to the “grab her by the pussy” conversation that the commander in chief carried into his presidency in 2017.
The directors of San Francisco’
s beloved Dance Mission Theater, believed in our artistic response so strongly, that they generously offered to co-present the development of #DontGrab in an evening-length production this Spring. Hurray!
The work is written and danced by members of the Piñata Dance Collective:
Liz Duran Boubion, Issachar Curbeeon, Andreina Maldonado, Dominique Nigro, Kristen Rulifson and Ronja Ver. Themes we are working with:
Re-possessed rituals of the Latinx Diaspora,
The reflection of racism in the mirror of an African American child with body dysmorphia.
Unveiling the hidden fatalities of beauty in the context of Miss Venezuela, Cosmetic Surgery and democracy.
Domestic Violence, Ivana and the #MeToo Movement.
Inhale….. Exhale……Just that.
See a glimpse of #DontGrab from FLACC on video here.
With grants, business sponsors, volunteers and individual donorslike you, PDC is raising $15,000 to fund this dance theater production which involves, production costs, venue rental, artist fees and physical training in “Grounded Bungee” techniques. The cost to attend an aerial training weekend workshop in LA to bolster my choreographic vision is $1000 and it Includes equipment, training, and certification… so when I return, I can teach grounded bungee aerial dance to you too!
The Piñata Dance Collective humbly asks you to support our company with as much financial backing, social media sharing and love that you can offer.Donate to Piñata45
As the director of PDC, I thank you for supporting my artistry over the years in big and small ways and I appreciate your value on the arts and culture in our community. I hope that we are serving to meet this need in our society and that you are inspired to come to our show!
Sincerely, Liz Duran Boubion, MFA, RSMT
*****
Piñata#45
May 11-12, 2018
Co-Presented by Piñata Dance Collective and Dance Mission Theater
7 Senses of Contact Improvisation- at Studio Azul, Berkeley, Ca.
*NEW CLASS SUNDAYS MARCH 2017*-
Sight, sound, taste, smell, and the “touching” language of contact improvisation. Investigations and inquiry of the moving body in space and time…from the vast and intricate “articulations” of TOUCH, INTUITION, EQUILIBRIUM (balance) and PROPRIOCEPTION (sensing location from the inside). The inner ear / (h)ear. Somatics.#)*) (note:seemingly arbitrary post-modernist over-punctuation:–:
Idiomatics of Contact Improv meets Exploratory Release Technique and other stuff. Post modern dance techniques broken down slowly with repetition. Expanding vocabulary of physics in contact, improvising with movement score/s -concepts to play with in solo or in contact with others. Returning to neutral. Integrating physical, emotional, mental.
Moving into the Spring Equinox, we’ll gain our equilibrium from a fear-inducing government and focus on developing a heightened awareness of the spidey senses during Women’s history month.
***All genders welcome-(feminists only of course) ***All Levels- (Beginners are welcome).
If Jane Austin had contact improvisation, it would have all made sense!
(Sense and Sensibility= Body and Mind). Find freedom in movement through the IDIOMATICS of the senses, exploratory TECHNIQUES, and the CURIOSITY within creative process.
*INTUITION: (Developing your 6th Sense) Ability to predict and support movement, as well as, opening doors to the unconscious stories of the body/mind. Using aesthetic feedback scores, somatic transference, creative restrictions, blindfolded exercises, RE-membering natural origins and body part mapping.
*EQUILIBRIUM: Finding balance and proprioceptive awareness in solo and in contact with others. Learning anatomically sound pathways of movement, head/tail connection, spiraling in and out of the floor, falling off your axis, turning upside down, working with your range of motion, traveling and changing direction/orientation.
*TOUCH/CONTACT: Where sensitivity and skill are wedded. Increasing fluency and articulation of mindful touch vocabulary. The language of contact is 3-fold: Functional Vocabulary (rolling, pivoting, sliding, pushing, pulling etc…), Sensing systems (auric field/proximal, nervous system, limbic system, muscular, skeletal, cardio vascular…etc) and Relational Contact (giving/receiving, leading/following, supporting, witnessing, sharing, saving ourselves and eachother etc…)
4 SUNDAYS / March 5, 12, 19, 26 3:30pm-6:30pm (3 hour classes) $220 for all 4. $75 non-refundable registration fee to hold your spot)
**Note: Class builds on itself so drop-in is not preferredunless you are an advanced/experienced dancer or you are attending the first classes in sequence. Pro-rated is fine- must contact email below.
Non-refundable Registration Fee Only ($75 to Reserve your spot. Remaining Balance due March 4): www.PayPal.Me/LizBoubion/75
*For Tamalpa Associates and Dancers Group Members, please email me and send your payment with your discount directly through your Pay Pal Account to the Piñata Dance Collective (non-refundable registration fee still applies)
email: flacc.info@gmail.com
*Partial Scholarships available upon request.
*Receive $10 off for every friend you bring with you! Please share theFB event pagewith your friends and tell them you are going. Be sure you let them know about the friend referral! 🙂
I believe FLACC 2016 is even more amazing than I had imagined due to our special guests from Guatemala, New Mexico and Los Angeles and our unique programming featuring *Queer/Trans Latino/a/xs on Friday Dec. 9, *Female Latina Women on Saturday Dec. 10, (both at 8pm) and *Indigenous Contemporary Choreographers on Sunday, Dec. 11 (at 4pm).
Video! Watch what our visiting artists are bringing to San Francisco!
I have to say, that the work of Rosa Rodriguez-Frazier and her collaborators, Joey Navarrete and Primera Generación Dance from Los Angeles, really make me miss home…. Rosa will be in all 3 nights showing a duet with Joey on Friday, a solo performance on Saturday, and a Quartet on Sunday. Brilliantly crafted and poignant material for first-generation Mexican-Americans. https://vimeo.com/141954791Also from Guatemala, Sabrina Castillo’s group, Momentum are staying in my apartment while I shack up with my brother John down the road. Sabrina gave a brilliant talk at the UCB panel last saturday. Momentum is the only contemporary dance company in Guatemala and they are here with us! Thanks to Saturday’s FLACCista, Diana Lara, de Honduras who introduced us! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVQv0lCENag&sns=em
Rulan Tangen’s, Dancing Earth- A bi-local company based in New Mexico and San Francisco standing up for Indigenous treaty rights for the last 10 years. She and her relatives have been dancing with #StandingRock for the last 3 months and are sure to bring us the work that activates and motivates this global society.
Our 3rd Annual Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers ¡FLACC! 2016 is right around the corner and we don’t want you to miss this opportunity to support marginalized Latinx and Native dance makers in our vulnerable political climate. Be sure to purchase tickets on-line because prices rise at the door. http://flacc2016.bpt.me/
Zoe Klein is on the UC Berkeley panel and performing Sunday 12/11, 4pm. Her work stems from her experience as a tans-national adoptee from Colombia.
Also, we are excited to engage in a dialogue with UC Berkeley working groups tomorrow, Saturday Dec. 3rd 1-2:30 PM
FLACC artists Zoe Kein, Sabrina Castillo, Diana Lara and Sebastian Hernandez will be sitting on the panel with 2015 Flaccista and moderator, Juan Manuel Aldape.
And here is my statement about the value of Contemporary Dance for Latin American Communities (a question posed to FLACC artists by Emmaly Wiederholdt for her upcoming article in Stance on Dance (more coming soon):
What is the value of contemporary dance to the Latin American community?
Liz Duran Boubion: I think the value of contemporary dance in Latin American communities or in any community, is subjectively assessed and really varies across borders, economic class and cross-culturally within the diaspora. FLACC is in the process of finding out what that value is for people, by creating this platform for Latinx and Native voices in San Francisco.
As artists, it is easy to say this has tremendous value for us personally, because it affirms that this huge part of our identity (Latinx) has value within the dominant culture of contemporary dance that has historically given limited access to our people. Ballet, Modern Dance, aerial dance, “high art” performance in general, is expensive and requires a lot of compromise and sacrifice for the working class, or undocumented, to both train or attend shows.
For Latinos who are educated, privileged and do have access, I would say that “Tradition”, and in this case, “traditional dance”, is one of the highest values as a way to preserve our culture, which presents a bit of a challenge for FLACC. Contemporary dance threatens to erase that tradition based on the western roots of our movement languages as well as the overtly queer, feminist or indigenous voices we support. However, FLACC is a space for the mestizaje de danza, where the multi-lingual dancer emerges. Meaning, we are versed in different dance styles and can bring our “culturally-mixed bodies” (and voices) to the stage. As the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers forms this “new tradition”, FLACCistas get to make innovative choices about the amount of “translating” they do for their artistry and for their audiences.
Like the breaking of a Piñata, FLACC breaks stereo-typical portrayals of Latinxs for white audiences, and it breaks the tradition of hetero-normative dances that assign patriarchal gender roles. It also breaks open the “recognizable or familiar” and allows for individuality, a tilted axis of perception and the naked truth of our lived experience to pour out.
The Piñata Dance Collective invites you to be part of the 3rd Annual “¡FLACC! 2016” Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers. Featuring 3 varied performances Dec. 9-11 at Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco. Each evening will be followed by refreshments and a 20 minute panel discussion with 16 local and international artists with our audiences.
With your help, we will be able to pay our 16 amazing choreographers an honorarium and help our visiting artists with lodging and travel costs. Latino and Indigenous voices are most valuable in our country right now and our festival is one of the few spaces where our artists feel supported to tell their story through cutting-edge multi-media dance performance.
So far, we have raised $6000 in Grant funding and we know that ticket sales will help us generate income, but we still need to ensure at least $5000 USD to meet our goal of $15,272.
Any support you can offer monetarily, volunteer, or In-Kind will be greatly appreciated.
This is where your donation will go:
ARTIST FUND
*Help with airfare for 5 dancers from Guatemala! ($1000)
*Lodging plus stipend for Joey Navarrette and Primera Generación Dance- 5 dancers from L.A. ($700) *Travel costs for Rulan Tangen- Indigenous Choreographer from New Mexico ($400)
*13 local FLACC artists honorarium ($2600 total)
TOTAL ARTIST FUND: *** $4700 ***
Momentum – Guatemala City
PRODUCTION COSTS
*Theater Rental: $3500
*Sound Tech and Lighting Designer: $1000 *Videographer: $600
*Photographer: $500
*Publicity/Printing: $172
*Catering/Green Room: $500
TOTAL PRODUCTION COSTS: $7772
TOTAL STAFF/ORGANIZATION COSTS: $2800
TOTAL FLACC EXPENSES: $15,272
Primero Generación Dance- LA
Feel free to choose a specific cost from the list above and we will let the world know its covered because of you!
Mil Gracias!
Payment options:
Donate in person at the show! CC, Cash, Check
-or-
Send money through PayPal: flacc.info@gmail.com
-or-
By Check: Make a check payable to: “Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts”. Be sure to include a note with your check or indicate in the memo line: “FOR ¡FLACC! ” or “For Piñata Dance Collective”.
Mail To:
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts c/o ¡FLACC!
2868 Mission Street,
San Francisco, CA 94110
Piñata Dance Collective has been a little quiet for a few months. Working on grant writing and preparations to present the 3rd Annual ¡FLACC! 2016 Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers. This year, we have doubled our capacity and are featuring 14 Latinx Choreographers from the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New Mexico, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Venezuela!!! Our programming includes 3 distinct evenings of cutting-edge dance honoring the intersectionality of our struggles with a regenerative platform of visibility and resistance by Latinx contemporary dance artists.
Stay Tuned: Panel discussion scheduled at UC Berkeley December 3rd, facilitated by Juan Manuel Aldape, Ph.D. Candidate and 2015 FLACCista. More info TBA.
Primero Generación Dance- LA
Fundraising: We are hosting 5 dancers from a company called “Momentum” from Guatemala and 5 dancers from Primero Generation Dance from Los Angeles! Please consider donating to help with travel and boarding for our guests. We also will be paying ALL 14 of our FLACC Choreographers an honorarium and plan to have a fundraising party in November! stay tuned! And thank you for your support.
Ready to see some dance? don’t tell me the last time you saw a modern-contemporary dance performance was back in college in your art appreciation class? Oh where or where do our audiences go? Somehow, dance seems to be the least attended of the art forms unless you are a dancer yourself or you happen to live with one. Lets break that paradigm! Come support 7 amazingly talented choreographers and their collaborators from the Latin@ diaspora at Mission Cultural Center September 25-27, join the panel discussion at CIIS on Sept. 19 and take some low-cost master classes during Latin American History Month with incredible teachers . ~~~Allow yourself to move and be moved~~~~~ Contact us about bringing your students for a discounted group rate.
*Get your PRE-SALE TICKETSuntil Sept. 1st.* Prices go up in 2 weeks!* For all details about our SHOW, FREE PANEL DISCUSSION and our FLACC Friday’s TEACHING SERIES in September. See www.flaccdanza.org
ALSO, check out my latest piece this weekend 8/15-8/16 at 7pm. Reception to follow!
“Broken” 10 minute solo
opening for JoAnn Selisker’s piece “What’s Best For You”
“Broken” is traversing the landscape of a fragmented Piñata with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, ADHD, OCD, depression and a good dose of Dharma wisdom. With a multi-media video and dance performance, “Broken” dissects the nature of impermanence, life and tissue paper.
Please come and give your feedback to the Piñata Dance Collective (Liz Boubion, Emmeline Gonzalez- Beban, Dominique Nigro, Liz Anders). We want your feedback as we develop our piece for FLACC , Mobongui Square, and Piñata En La’Air .
Fri. Sept 11, 2015 5:00pm
Buy Tickets at the Door
Tickets $5
***Be a shareholder in the creative process. See works in progress from dance artists. Discuss what you saw, what resonated, and what sparked questions. Then, exercise your share to award an artist with 15 hours of free rehearsal time.
This upcoming Take 5 will feature works in progress from Luis Valverde, Ayana Yonesaka and Elizabeth Boubion.
I am pleased to share that I am once again traveling in Guadalajara, Jalisco MX at the moment to teach workshops and perform at MeditapalpaandMakani School for the Arts. Dale! So much has happened since last summer during my 1st residency here… the birth of a new baby by Ailyn Arelles and Ramón Vasquez, (my dear friends and hosts)… bringing my students, Victor and Marlet to Oakland last October for our 1st Annual ¡FLACC!…receiving my first Dance grant by the Zellerbach Family Foundation last January, choreographing a new piñata deconstruction to perform in several venues in the bay area, and finaliamente, developing a harmonious partnerships with Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, California Institute of Integral Studies and the FLACC co-founders, Juan Aldape, Zari Le’On, Cathy Davalos and Rogelio Lopez as we prepare for our 2nd Annual Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (!FLACC!) September 25-27.
During Latin American History Month SEPTIEMBRE…
!FLACC! 2015, includes ***a 3-night run of the show*** the *** FLACC FRIDAY teaching series***, and a ***panel discussion at CIIS!
The Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers is proud to present 7 creadores en movimiento on Sept 25-27. We are: Piñata Dance Collective, David Herrera Performance Company, Rogelio Lopez and Dancers, Davalos Dance, Zari Le’On Dance Theater, Detour Dance and Juan Aldape.
Our Panel Discussion will be sponsored by the Center for Art and Social Change at California Institute of Integral Studies. Sept. 19. 6pm. ¡FLACC! featured artists will have the opportunity to discuss how identity reveals itself through their artistry and about the relevance of ¡FLACC! personally, artistically, socially or politically as the only annual festival of its kind on the West Coast that celebrates contemporary choreographers of the Latin@ diaspora.
With all of the wonderful dancing on our plate, new dancers to feed and a big festival to produce, the Piñata Dance Collective needs your help even more this year as we grow our company.
Please consider donating to our work that supports the artistic voices of Latin@ contemporary choreographers and organizers. Your donation feeds our artists, gets the Piñata in the air (on a bungee in November), and develops ¡FLACC! 2015 at MCCLA!
Your support is what keeps us placing beauty and truth at the center of our culture… giving us a place to gather, a place to think, to be touched, moved and possibly, transformed.
*Piñata Dance Collective (PDC) is fiscally sponsored by ABD Productions
*!FLACC! is a project of PDC and is fiscally sponsored by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
Muchas Gracias para su generosidad!
Con agradecimiento,
Elizabeth Duran Boubion,
Managing/Artistic Director of PDC and FLACC
Piñata Dance Collective/Dance Anywhere March 2015/ MCCLA