Hello dear friends and colleagues,
I have just returned from a series of residencies and I am so filled with inspiration and a desire to connect with my peers that I decided to reach out to you, share a little about my year and hopefully hear a little bit about yours.
This year started off in beautiful Durham, NC as we were invited for a residency at The American Dance Festival (ADF) for two weeks. ADF has become a second home for me so it was such a treat to be there as I begun an entirely new rehearsal process. Straight from Durham we headed back to Miami for a sold out performance with The New World Symphony. We were truly honored to collaborate on a unique performance experience melding the two worlds of orchestral music and dance. With the internationally renowned Frank Gehry designed New World Symphony Music Hall transformed into a late-night lounge with club-style lighting and video projections, our original music videos and live performance created a surreal and lively experience that was uniquely Miami.
In March, a short documentary film collaboration between Jonathon David Kane and myself was selected to be a part of The Miami International Film Festival. Click here to see the trailer.
In April I was amongst the first group of artists to be invited to Dance Place, DC to participate in the Alan M. Kreigsman Creative Residency. I began working on a quartet which would eventually premiere in June at The American Dance Festival.
In May I was selected to be a Schonburg Fellow at The Yard at Martha’s Vineyard. My company was in residency for 3 weeks and we began to solidify the foundation of our newest work Carne Viva. I was mentored by the brilliant David Brick of Headlong Theater whose advice and wisdom is still resonating with me today and who has helped to shift my thinking in a major way. (side note- It was pretty surreal to have the enigmatic Eiko and Koma as roommates!) Click here for a short video about the Shonburg Fe
Also in May, I was honored to present my dear friend Richard Feldman with the Civic Award as part of Ballet Hispanico 2016 Gala.
Click here to read my feature in July's Dance Magazine.
Another incredibly talented group of students auditoned this year for the annual Spike Scholarship Audition at New World School of the Arts. Congratulations to Chris Medina for being selected! For more info go to www.spikeaward.org
The title Carne Viva literally translates to “raw", but for native Spanish speakers it is a term we often use to describe an open wound. The words ‘carne' means flesh or meat. And ‘viva' means life or long live. So… you can interpret this title to mean a variety of things.
This month my company is preparing for performances presented by ADF at The Joyce NYC August 4-7. I remember watching my first performance at The Joyce and feeling like a part of something so much bigger than myself. I never would have imagined that one day it would be my name on the marquis. And it still feels like a dream. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all the experiences that have brought me here and so honored to be able to be an advocate for my community outside of Miami.
ADF presents Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre at The Joyce NYC. Click here to see the trailer,
On the Joyce program will be this newest work Carne Viva and my very first work Various Stages of Drowning: A Cabaret. I think it quite fitting to pair these two pieces together as they both represent times in my life of great growth and transition, 8 years apart. I have been saying for a long time that I feel my creative process has been shifting in a new direction and this new work sits in the middle of that evolution. Although it is already very different from my previous choreography in its visual simplicity and exhausting physicality, I sense that I have some ways to go before it feels fully complete. I am excited for what this new process can reveal for me personally, and I hope it will bring more dimension to my entire creative vision. I hope to see you at The Joyce and to share in this moment of transition and growth with you.
Thank you so much for your continued support and love,
Rosie
