Dramaturg. Cinco Palmas, devised by Martha Herrera-Lasso Gónzalez and Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz.
U.C. Berkeley / Berkeley, CA / Feb. 2016
Cinco Palmas is an experimental (and in-progress) piece of dance theatre on which I am collaborating with writer-director Martha Herrera-Lasso Gónzalez and dancer-choreographer Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz. The text for the piece - which is presented bilingually, in both English and Spanish - was made out of testimony recorded by a Mexican immigration activist who helped an undocumented minor from Honduras travel the length of Mexico and cross into the United States. The title of the piece - "five palms" in English - refers to the vast distance this unlikely pair has to traverse, measured hand by hand on a map.
In its U.C. Berkeley workshop incarnation, Cinco Palmas featured Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz, Briunia Stock, Jocelyn Panfilo and Elizabeth Woolf. Melissa Aldape helped to devise movement for the performers. Martha Herrera-Lasso Gónzalez designed and operated the projections.
All photographs by Alessandra Mello and courtesy of Melissa Schultz at TDPS.