News Release| Latina Dance Theater Project; Cal State L.A.

July 20, 2011

Note to news directors or reporters:  Professor Dionne Espinoza can be reached for interviews at the following – [email protected] or (323) 343-2190.

‘Slumber of Reason’ collaborative performance raises questions about contemporary issues

Latina Dance Theater Project at Cal State L.A. Thursday, Aug. 4

Los Angeles, CA –  A collaborative ensemble of multidisciplinary artists, the Latina Dance Theater Project will present “Slumber of Reason (El Sueno de la Razon)”—a series of ten vignettes that will delve into the topics of contemporary superstitions and social abuses—Thursday, Aug. 4, 8 p.m., in Cal State L.A.’s State Playhouse.

As part of the 2011 Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) Summer Institute, the Latina Dance Theater Project will bring together physical, musical and visual elements to create a performance experience that reflects today’s diverse Latin culture.

The group is described as using powerful images based on Spanish painter Francisco de Goya’s artwork, Los Caprichos, to “explore contemporary demons that affect our world ranging from the darkest to the most absurdly humorous, including immigration, environmental degradation, racism and technological alienation.”

Goya’s Los Caprichos is a series of 80 prints created as “a passionate declaration of political liberalism” in a time of economic crisis and social unrest in 18th-century Spain.

The Latina Dance Theater Project consists of five nationally recognized Latina/o dance theater artists. They are Licia Perea, Juanita Suarez, Eva Zorrilla Tessler, Jose Garcia Davis, and Gabriela Nugent. For biographies of the Latina Dance Theater Project members: http://www.latinadanceproject.com/bio_licia_perea.html.

The performance will also feature guest collaborators—director Tim Perez, costume artist Susie Cox, composer Wes Hambright, and set designer/performer Jose Garcia Davis.

“The Latina Dance Theater Project offers an innovative vision that intersects dance traditions and performance traditions in a multidisciplinary collaboration,” said Dionne Espinoza, the MALCS conference coordinator and associate professor of Chicano Studies and Liberal Studies at CSULA. “We are pleased to co-sponsor their newest piece, ‘Slumber of Reason’ which, inspired by Goya’s artwork, Los Caprichos, raises questions about contemporary issues. It is also an opportunity to showcase Latinas as performing artists in the field of dance.”

The 2011 MALCS Summer Institute, which will be held Aug. 3-6 on the CSULA campus, will feature lectures, workshops, seminars and various social activities, focusing on the theme, “Against Fear and Terror: Una Nueva Conciencia Sin Fronteras.”

MALCS—also known as Women Active in Letters and Social Change—is an organization of Chicanas/Latinas and Native American women working in academia and in community settings with a common goal: to work toward the support, education and dissemination of Chicana/Latina and Native American women’s issues.

Co-sponsored by the L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs and the University’s College of Arts and Letters, the Latina Dance Theater Project performance of “Slumber of Reason” is free to the public.

The University is located at the Eastern Avenue exit, San Bernardino Freeway, at the interchange of the 10 and 710 freeways. Public (permit dispensers) parking is available on the top level of Parking Structure C. For campus maps and directions: /univ/maps/cslamap.php.

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