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At Peruvian Dance Festival, Pirouettes and Pisco Sours By ZULEMA QUINTÁNS
In early June, members of the Juilliard Dance Ensemble had the exciting opportunity of going on a two-week performance tour in Peru, the land of the Incas and Vargas Llosa. This came about when Derek Mithaug, director of career development, introduced Fernando Torres, cultural director of the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, to Lawrence Rhodes, director of Juilliard's Dance Division. Our trip was generously supported by President Polisi, the U.S. Embassy, and our hosts at the Instituto Cultural.
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| The Juilliard dancers (along with their company manager and tour director) were awed by the splendors of Machu Picchu, which they visited at the end of their tour in Peru. |
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The group included Jubal Battisti, Mark Burrell, Caroline Finn, Sebastian Gehrke, Michelle Smith, Isaac Spencer, Marie Zvosec, and me, along with Rhodes, company manager Keith Michael, and tour director Joseph Bartning. Over the two weeks, we visited three cities, made new friends, learned some Spanish and, most importantly, learned to distinguish llamas from alpacas. The best way to tell this story is to start from the beginning…We arrived in Lima late in the evening of June 1, not knowing quite what to expect. We claimed our bags and soon thereafter watched our driver climb on top of our van to pile our suitcases on the roof. Our hotel was a charming little private residence with a staff more like a host family; each morning, Orlando prepared us a delicious breakfast of papaya, pan con mantequilla, and café. (Mark, although he knew no Spanish prior to the trip, quickly learned to say "Donde estas Orlando?" when Orlando had the day off.)Keith was the first one to start working, heading straight for the theater after breakfast so he could immediately begin hanging lights and making miracles for our big premiere in two days' time. In our free time we explored the Inca market—an outdoor shopping center with Peruvian crafts, alpaca knitwear, woven baskets, and exotic jewelry—along with the beach, with its beautiful parks and piers.The Juilliard Dance Ensemble was performing as the opening act of the Danza Nueva XVI Festival Internacional de Lima. Interestingly enough, we were billed as a touring company—and after the success of the shows, we had a hard time convincing people that we were a school, not a professional company! We presented a mixed program, typical for Juilliard but unusual for our Peruvian audiences, consisting of works by established choreographers like José Limón, Jiri Kylian, and Ohad Naharin, paired with the student compositions of Burrell, Finn, Gehrke, and Spencer.The second week took us to Arequipa, "the white city," named after the volcanic rock used in the construction of many of the buildings. There we participated in celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, one of the city's cultural centers. Arequipa, the birthplace of Mario Vargas Llosa of Green House fame, also marked the beginning of our ascent into the Andes. Because the city stands approximately one mile above sea level, we needed to make use of the oxygen tanks backstage to catch our breaths in between pieces. On the last night after the performance, our hosts treated us to a lovely dinner that included exotic offerings of alpaca steaks and ostrich meat. Over the course of the trip we tasted a variety of Peruvian dishes including ceviche, raw fish cured with lemon; lucuma, a fruit resembling an avocado; and perhaps our favorite, pisco sour, the national drink of Peru, made from a liqueur of distilled grapes, blended with lime juice and egg whites.Cuzco, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet, was the most physically challenging place in which to perform. This was the last city on our tour; we gave a public concert "in homage to the Imperial City of Cuzco," where we were greeted at the theater by a crowd of 800 screaming fans, more like a crowd at a soccer match than a dance performance! By now we were used to our celebrity status (Juilliard audiences, please take note). What better way to end our series of shows?In addition to the five performances in Lima, Arequipa, and Cuzco, we gave five master classes to local students and professional dancers around the cities. The students were excited to participate in the classes, had many questions, and stayed on well past the time allotted.
The morning of the second-to-last day, we got up to take a 6 a.m. train ride to Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. Although a little grumpy at the outset of the trip, we quickly changed moods as we drove up the mountain and began to catch a glimpse of some of the stone buildings of Machu Picchu. It is hard to capture with words the impact of this sight: the green mountains, far-off cries of birds and animals from the Amazon jungle, blue-bellied hummingbirds, and the ever-shifting clouds that surround the city. It is a magical place. Invisible from the ground because of the jungle canopy, it seems as though it doesn't really exist until you are standing right in the middle of it.Coming back to Lima for an afternoon before returning to New York, Jubal and I were making our way through the Inca market when a young woman who had seen our performance the first week in Lima stopped us. "When are you coming back?" she asked. "You know, we never see dance like that here." We reassured her and told her not to worry—we'll be back.Zulema Quintáns graduated with a B.F.A. in dance last May.
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