The Latina/o Studies Program Fridays with Faculty luncheon seminar offers an opportunity for Latina/o and non-Latina/o students of all levels and disciplines to meet faculty and administrators from across the university for informal conversation about their current research/work in progress. All are welcome!

Fridays at 12 noon @ 429 Rockefeller Hall

February 7
Paul Ortiz
Professor of Labor History
School of Industrial and Labor Relations

February 28
Julie Ficarra
Senior Lecturer
Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

March 7
Juan Jaimes Costilla
Associate Dean of Students & Director of Latinx Student Empowerment
Student and Campus Life

March 14
Juan Hinestroza
Rebecca Q. Morgan '60 Professor
Department of Human Centered Design
College of Human Ecology

March 21
Vivian Zayas
Professor
Department of Psychology
College of Arts & Sciences

April 11

Héctor Abruña
E. M. Chamot Professor
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
College of Arts and Sciences

¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989–1996 is a documentary about Rompeforma: Maratón de Baile, Performance & Visuales, an experimental dance and performance festival that took place in Puerto Rico from 1989 to 1996. Co-directed and produced by Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez, edited by Laura Sofía Pérez, and with an original score by Eduardo Alegría, Fenomenal offers a deep dive into the artistic and creative contributions of Caribbean and Latinx artists to the American avant-garde. The documentary showcases the works of a generation of Caribbean and Latinx experimental dancers, performers, and curators whose influence has often been overlooked or forgotten by historians and scholars in the field.

Fenomenal features dozens of performances and interviews with many prominent leaders in the field, including those who have sadly passed. Among the notable figures featured in the documentary are Awilda Sterling Duprey and Coco Fusco (both highlighted in the 2022 Whitney Biennial), Antonio Martorell (recently awarded the National Medal of the Arts), Pepón Osorio (whose solo exhibition is currently at the New Museum in NYC), Raphael Montañez (founder of El Museo del Barrio in NYC), David Zambrano (celebrated dancer, master teacher, and director of TicTac Art Centre in Brussels), and renowned theater artists Carmelita Tropicana and Guillermo Gómez Peña. The documentary also features the work of Nuyorican poets Sandra María Esteves, Pedro Pietri, and Miguel Algarín, among many others.

Join Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez after the screening for a Q&A.

About the Artists

Merián Soto, a Puerto Rican dancer, choreographer, video artist, and filmmaker, is the creator of Branch Dancing and Modal Practice, two innovative aesthetic-somatic dance methodologies. Her work explores and reflects on Latinx heritage, history, and culture, while addressing the ongoing legacy of colonialism. Soto’s artistic practice also includes experiments with Salsa and the Branch Dance Series, which encompasses a diverse range of performances—on stage, in galleries, in nature, as well as through video installations and year-long seasonal projects.

Soto has received numerous prestigious awards, including a BESSIE Award (2000), the Greater Philadelphia Dance and Physical Theater Award “ROCKY” (2008), a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2015), and the United States Artists Doris Duke Fellowship in Dance (2019). She currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she is a Professor of Dance and Curator of the Reflection/Response Choreographic Commission at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. Her current projects include La Escuelita Fenomenal (with Viveca Vázquez), ongoing collaborations with Eiko Otake and Silvana Cardell, and Legacy Unboxed, an archival and exhibition project with Liz Lerman, Jawolle Zollar, Joanna Haigood, and Eiko Otake.

Viveca Vázquez is a leading figure in experimental dance and performance in Puerto Rico. A full professor at the University of Puerto Rico, she teaches movement in the Theater Department and classical studies in the School of General Studies. Vázquez is also a 2022 United States Artists Mellon Fellow, and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. In 2013, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC) presented a retrospective of her work, CONDUCTA Coreografía del Error [CONDUCT Choreography of Error], marking the first time a museum in Puerto Rico celebrated the work of a movement artist on such a significant scale. Her performances have been presented in experimental venues in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Portugal, Ecuador, and Brussels. In 2023, she co-produced and co-directed Fenomenal, Rompeforma 1989–1996, a documentary film with Merián Soto.

Events co-sponsored by the Cornell Council for the Arts, Department of Performing & Media Arts, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Latina/o Studies Program, Department of Art History, American Studies Program, Department of Literatures in English, Department of Comparative Literature, and the Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program.

Join the "Body and Tech" and "Dance Compositions" course for a movement and creation workshop with Merián Soto.

Merián Soto, a Puerto Rican dancer, choreographer, video artist, and filmmaker, is the creator of Branch Dancing and Modal Practice, two innovative aesthetic-somatic dance methodologies. Her work explores and reflects on Latinx heritage, history, and culture, while addressing the ongoing legacy of colonialism. Soto’s artistic practice also includes experiments with Salsa and the Branch Dance Series, which encompasses a diverse range of performances—on stage, in galleries, in nature, as well as through video installations and year-long seasonal projects.

Soto has received numerous prestigious awards, including a BESSIE Award (2000), the Greater Philadelphia Dance and Physical Theater Award “ROCKY” (2008), a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2015), and the United States Artists Doris Duke Fellowship in Dance (2019). She currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she is a Professor of Dance and Curator of the Reflection/Response Choreographic Commission at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. Her current projects include La Escuelita Fenomenal (with Viveca Vázquez), ongoing collaborations with Eiko Otake and Silvana Cardell, and Legacy Unboxed, an archival and exhibition project with Liz Lerman, Jawolle Zollar, Joanna Haigood, and Eiko Otake.

Film Screening: "¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989–1996"
Followed by Q&A with the directors Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez

Thursday, April 10 at 5:00pm
Film Forum, Schwartz Center

Events co-sponsored by the Cornell Council for the Arts, Department of Performing & Media Arts, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Latina/o Studies Program, Department of Art History, American Studies Program, Department of Literatures in English, Department of Comparative Literature, and the Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program.