Category Archives: Piñata News

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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!

https://www.gofundme.com/EndofHerRope

Thank you for your generous support

Issachar Curbeon rehearsing “Zinzi”. A piece about body dysmporphia in the eyes of an African American Girl.

Scott Wells and Liz Boubion rehearsing “piñata humana”

Andreina Maldonado and Dominique Nigro rehearsing “Magazine” duet.

Ronja Ver rehearsing solo “Sunflower”

Piñata 45: The End of Her Rope

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

Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12 at 8:00 pm

Tickets $20

facebook event page

“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.

Your support for women in the arts is needed!

Donate today

Thank you very much for your generous donation!

Zinzi, Miss Universe, Ivana and the Pussy Fleet

Dear Supporter of the Piñata Dance Collective,

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!

Purchase Tickets

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

Donate Today: paypal.me/LizBoubion

Or send a check to:

Piñata Dance Collective

147 Duncan St.

San Francisco, CA 94110

Like our facebook page

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Photo Credit: Yvonne Portra/ Dancer: Liz Duran Boubion

Newly Published Article:

Interview with Liz Duran Boubion and Emmaly Weiderholdt in Stance On Dance

7 Senses in CI begins this Sunday!

7 Senses of Contact Improvisation- at Studio Azul, Berkeley, Ca.

*NEW CLASS SUNDAYS MARCH 2017*-

Sight, sound, tast birdvideos 090 e, 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 lizandlizz 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 liz22 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 preferred unless you are an advanced/experienced dancer or you are attending the first classes in sequence. Pro-rated is fine- must contact email below.

Pay now!

$220/ 4 classes (including non-refundable registration fee $75): www.PayPal.Me/LizBoubion/220

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 the FB event page with your friends and tell them you are going. Be sure you let them know about the friend referral! 🙂

RSVP on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1108042722637556/

Imagine all the dots are people.[:]::[::]:.[:..].:.:.:. ~secret codes~Etc.

Short Video sample of combining contemporary and contact dance:

3 days until show time!

Hola community!

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).

Tickets in advance are $20/ at the door $27

Purchase tickets here: http://flacc2016.bpt

*We will have post-show panel discussions led by Ernesto Sopprani, Sandra Pacheco and Catherine Marie Davalos

*a cultural welcoming from Kanyon Sayers Rood, a representative from the Ohlone First Nation.

Hot off the press!

Prensalibre http://www.prensalibre.com/vida/escenario/momentum-participa-en-festival-flacc>

Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/29/dance-card-showcase-for-contemporary-latin-american-choreographers/

Stance on Dance
http://stanceondance.com/2016/12/05/contemporary-dance-through-a-latin-american-lens/

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.

https://vimeo.com/70011730

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Value of Contemporary Dance for Latinxs?

Dear community,

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.

…AND…We got PRESS! Enjoy the read… http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/29/dance-card-showcase-for-contemporary-latin-american-choreographers/

Karla Quintero-Her Excerpt from “If Mars” will be featured on Saturday’s program Las Mujeres- Coreógrafas Latinas Internacional. 12/10 8pm.

See more images and videos highlighting all 16 choreographers here: www.flaccdanza.org

Sandra Pacheco Phd.- Our panel moderator after the show on Dec. 10. She is an assistant professor at CIIS and co-founder of Curanderas sin Fronteras.

Donate to the FLACC Artist FUND

Please fill our piñata! Join the Piñata Dance Collective in producing FLACC

OUR FUNDRAISING GOAL FOR FLACC 2016 : *** $4700 ***

This is where your donations will go:

*Travel costs and lodging for 5 dancers from Guatemala!

*Lodging for 5 dancers from L.A.

*All 16 FLACC artists honorarium

Support the artists of FLACC!

FLACC 2016 Artist Fund from Liz Boubion

Dear Community Sponsor:

flacc-2016-5x8_fronttake1_e 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.

DANCING EARTH 2016 © Paulo T. Photography www.PauloT.com

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

Muchas Gracias for filling our piñata!

Liz Duran Boubion

photo credit: Su Pang

Piñata Dance Collective | 320 Oakland Ave. Apt. B, Oakland Ca. 94611 | (510)302-8575 | www.flaccdanza.org | www.lizboubion.org

Dear Subscribers,

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.

Victor Talledos

Friday 8pm-Remembering PULSE featuring Queer/Trans Latino coreógrafos

Saturday 8pm- Las Mujeres featuring international female coreógrafos

Sunday 4pm- Indigenistas featuring a mixed program highlighting indigenous choreographers.

see all the artists here:

www.flaccdanza.org

Refreshments served and post-performance panel discussions each night. Special Guest facilitators TBA!

Don’t miss out on any of them! Festival Tickets are available NOW!!!

Early Bird Tickets $15! (for a limited time only)

Discount Festival Tickets

$25 2-day Pass/ $35 3-Day pass!!!
Single ticket: General Admission $27
at the door/$20 in advance.

Buy Tickets here:

http://flacc2016.bpt.me

PANEL DISCUSSION at UCB

Stay Tuned: Panel discussion scheduled at UC Berkeley December 3rd, facilitated by Juan Manuel Aldape, Ph.D. Candidate and 2015 FLACCista. More info TBA.