Over the summer, Slippery Rock University’s dance company Palenque traveled to Colombia to learn about the culture and bring back research to grow Palenque.
Palenque is a Colombian Dance Ensemble that is housed in the Department of Dance at SRU. The ensemble was created and is directed by Melissa Teodoro, a professor in the department.
“[The idea for the company] sprouted from students actually, so my research is in Colombian dance, Colombian traditional dance…my students started becoming interested in what I researched and so, because of their interest, I started a little company. And the little company did a couple of performances on campus, and then word started getting out into the Pittsburgh community and the western Pennsylvania community. And they started inviting us to different venues, to festivals, to schools, to nursing homes…and so the company needed to grow because there was more demand for it. And from two dancers that I had in 2012, now we have 20 dancers, and it’s a touring company,” Teodoro said.
The ensemble tours around western Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and other neighboring states.
Based on ethnographic research, Palenque reconstructs and recreates dances from Colombia.
“I’ve traveled different cities and different regions of Colombia, different towns of Colombia, studying the dances,” Teodoro said. “Colombia is a country that is very rich in music and dance, so almost every town or village has their own dance that’s not anywhere else.”
Teodoro wanted to share this education and the way she examined dance with her students.
“I started bringing them with me to Colombia to examine dances and reconstruct dances and observe dances,” Teodoro said.
Teodoro wanted the students to be able to participate in these dances and embody the movements to learn about Colombia through dance.
A group of 11 dance majors visited Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Palenque de San Basilio. This is the seventh group that Teodoro has taken to Colombia on this trip, as it started in 2012.
Paula Rodríguez-Alvarez, a BFA dance major with a concentration in performance and choreography, and with a minor in psychology, talked about her experience with Palenque.
“I transferred here two years ago as an international student. I am from Costa Rica, so basically, Palenque was just an opportunity for me to get more in touch with my culture. Even though I’m not a Colombian myself, we do have very similar cultures as we are split up by one country just in between us. It’s Panama. So, it was just a way for me to get in touch with my culture and also work on my professional skills as I would love to be part of a dance company one day and it kind of gives me a pre professional space to make mistakes and just learn what it is like to be in a dance company,” Rodríguez-Alvarez said.
Gianna Dobrich, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in dance with a concentration in performance and choreography, is also a transfer student who found love for Palenque.
“I’m a transfer student, and one day I came here to visit the campus, and they were rehearsing for Palenque, and I got to sit in a little showcase, and immediately I fell in love with the dancing. Everyone who was dancing just looked so happy and invested in what they’re doing,” Dobrich said.
Dobrich expressed her excitement to be chosen to be a part of Palenque.
“I think it’s a twofold thing. I wanted to be in it to experience the culture and experience a new way of dancing, but I also wanted to be in it for the community aspect, because I knew everyone in the group was so close, and there’s something so beautiful about all learning a new culture together and investing your time in it together,” Dobrich said.
This year, Jennifer Keller, chair of the Department of Dance, also joined the group and helped with trip organization.
“We went to the city of Cartagena…that was our base, and Cartagena’s a historic colonial city that’s over 500 years old. So, it’s architecturally speaking, it’s beautiful, and culturally, it’s beautiful. There’s music and dance everywhere,” Teodoro said.
The professor also discussed her connection with the Universidad del Atlántico.
“We went to the city of Barranquilla, and I had been working with students and faculty from a university there…I promised those students in Colombia that I was going to bring my students from the United States to have some kind of exchange. So we went to Barranquilla, and that exchange was very enriching and just very special for everybody,” Teodoro said.
Although only a two-day program, students from both universities immediately bonded.
The group also enjoyed some cultural sightseeing, including a boat tour around Islas del Rosario, where they snorkled and enjoyed Coumbian dishes, and spent a day at a village called Palenque.
“It is a village that’s existed for probably more than 300 years, and what’s interesting about the village of Palenque is that it was founded by an enslaved population who were able to escape from the Spanish colonizers…They went into the mountains, far away from the Spanish colonizers, and they created their own village. Kind of a hidden village…and because it exists, a lot of their traditions, their cultural expressions are still alive,” Teodoro said.
To visit the village of Palenque you have to be invited.
“I know many of them were touched by that experience, and I think what’s important: bringing students with me is that they understand where the dances that they’ve been performing, where they come from, because the culture is in the dance itself,” Teodoro said.
Rodríguez-Alvarez talked about her experience in the city of Palenque.
“It was such an amazing experience. It was also really busy and a big challenge for me. I was one of two students who is bilingual and can speak Spanish, so me and Abby Brubaker, who’s the other Spanish speaking student, we were translating day and night, which was a big challenge for us, but one that we enjoyed, and one that was very fulfilling. Just being able to help our friends who did not know the language, also sharing an Airbnb and hotel rooms with them, was such a bonding experience,” Rodríguez-Alvarez said. “I’ve never felt so close to some of these people, and although I did go with my best friend, I was able to grow such a deeper relationship with her and with everyone in the company.”
“They got to see a lot of [styles of] dance…for them to identify with dancers from a different culture, I think they realized that they don’t have to speak the same literal language,” Teodoro said. “Just the body and movement is a form of communication, so it was really fun seeing them with the dance students from the Universidad de Atlántico in Barranquilla, and how they just found each other right away, that was just love at first sight. They didn’t need to speak; of course they were on their telephones and Google Translate, but it was such a pleasure to just see these young college students who have the language of dance communicate with each other and bond with each other,”
The students were able to make new friends and meet new people along their journey.
“We took classes from the professors there. We also were able to meet the students, which is our favorite part of the entire trip. We felt like we knew these people for our whole lives. Immediately, we just had this connection with these students and a lot of them didn’t speak a lot of English, and obviously we didn’t speak a lot of Spanish, so there was very little language being used to communicate. Everything was done through dance,” Dobrich said. “So, there was this common theme of dance being a universal language throughout that specific part, but obviously throughout the whole trip…that was so amazing.”
Another opportunity for the Palenque dancers is getting to experience performing for different audiences and venues.
“Just sitting back and observing my students grow in front of my eyes and be in awe of everything that they are experiencing and seeing. Just seeing their faces when they taste something that they’ve never tasted before, or when they see something they’ve never seen before, or when they hear music that they’ve never heard before, just being a witness of their awe,” Teodoro said.
Palenque: Colombian Dance Ensemble performs at schools, festivals, assisted living homes, colleges, and community centers in the Western PA region throughout the year.
Follow Palenque on Instagram for more information @sru_palenque.
