CUERVA URBAN FOLKLÓRICO / BORDERLINE MOVEMENTS – Dual Perpesctive

A collaboration of LA-based choreographers rayven armijo and Paola Escobar, whose work is rooted in Latin-American and Hispanic cultural traditions, as well as diverse perspectives that explore current social, political, and aesthetic dynamics. Armijo’s Cuerva​ Urban Folklórica and Escobar’s Borderline Movements a​cknowledge there are boundaries; however, their work cultivates a new trend while, simultaneously, appropriating convention in order to morph into boundless borders, conveying the message that we should continue nudging, pushing, and having a dialogue about our bodies negotiating space whether as an protestor, dancer, viewer, or missing.

$20 in advance / $25 at the door

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rayven armijo recently graduated with a Master’s in Fine Arts from UCLA. Since 2000, she founded a company called ​cuerva ​urban folklórico.​ Since the age of three, ​she ​has studied Mexican folk dance and flamenco and martial arts under the tutelage of her mother and father Carolina Armijo and Ray Armijo. rayven became the assistant director at the age of fourteen of her mother’s group, ​Ballet Folklóico de Carolina,​ formed in 1975. She then pursued training in broader forms of codified dance genres at L.A. County Arts High School and Alvin Ailey. While in New York, rayven toured with two New York-based choreographers, Jennifer Archibald and Maguette Camara, performing modern dance, hip-hop, and West African dance. Upon her return to the Los Angeles area, rayven began a 4-year tenure as soloist with ​Grandeza Mexicana Mexican Folk Ballet Company performing diverse styles of Mexican folk dance, like Jalisco, Guerrero, Michoacán, Chiapas and Nuevo León. In 2008, she was a top twenty competitor in the Fox hit show, ​So You Think You Can Dance,​ the producers categorized as her as the “contemporary ballet dancer.” In 2009, she graduated from University of La Verne with a B.A in political science. Soon after her graduation, rayven traveled to China to study the language and its culture for six years. She is also the recipient of several scholarship like the Graduate Opportunity Fellowship in 2015, the Elaine Krown Klein Scholarship in 2016 and the Hyatt Scholarship 2017.

Paola Escobar is a Colombian choreographer, performer, educator and activist who creates transcultural work that combines her Latin-American background with her personal interest in the flamenco tradition, African and Latin American culture, and contemporary art. Escobar’s work reflects on memory and cultural identity, and deals with current issues of immigration, hierarchies of power, and cultural perception. Her work organically crosses formal boundaries that traditionally separate disciplines and styles, juxtaposing dance vocabularies and presenting a holistic perspective of the body that is able to move, speak, and produce sound.

Escobar has toured and performed in Festivals in Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, and Brazil. In 2005, Escobar received the Colombian National Award for her piece Flamenco 24 Horas. Since relocating to Florida in 2005 Escobar has worked as an independent artist for the local companies Bailes Ferrer, Siempre Flamenco, Ballet Flamenco La Rosa and the mixed-ability theater group Antiheroes. In 2015 Escobar’s film La Intrusa, was selected for Miami Screen Dance 2015.

Escobar obtained an MFA in Dance Choreography at CalArts in 2017, and her BFA in Dance (Summa cum Laude) at the University of Florida, 2012.