La Pocha Nostra
COURSE SIZE: 16 Participants
Conceptual Lab of Hybrid Art and Critical Culture.
(An Intensive Community Workshop on Performance Art as Radical Democracy)
Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Roberto Sifuentes, members of the legendary Pocha Nostra performance troupe, will conduct their 6-day intensive hands-on workshop at the Winter School, exploring performance art as a form of radical democracy.
Since 1993, Gómez-Peña and La Pocha Nostra have conducted innovative workshops that bridge cultures, generations and disciplines to create “ephemeral communities of rebel artists”. Drawing from multiple traditions, including experimental theatre and dance, ritual performance, and shamanism, this workshop will help participants develop a hybrid persona based on their own complex identities, personal aesthetics and political tribulations.
The objectives of this workshop are:
To groom emerging - mid career artists and cultural leaders and help them sharpen their performance and analytical skill in dialogue with like-minded cultural rebels.
To develop new models for the relationship between artists and community, mentor and apprentice, that are neither colonial nor condescending.
To establish a temporary utopian space for aesthetic freedom and cross-cultural dialogue.
To seek a new aesthetic that truly reflects the spirit and tribulations of our times.
Designed to build bridges between marginalized cultures, this workshop will bring together a diverse group of artists and students in a deeply personal engagement with art and politics.
Who’s is for?
Some prior performance experience is required, but a great deal of willingness to experiment is fundamental. Performance artists, experimental actors, dancers, theorists, and students interested in the topics addressed by Gomez-Peña and La Pocha Nostra; applicants must be familiar with the artists' work. The workshop is fun but rigorous. (If you have cultural phobias, or serious health problems, unfortunately this workshop is not for you).
Performance artist/writer Guillermo Gómez-Peña is artistic director of La Pocha Nostra. His pioneering work in performance, video, installation, poetry, journalism, cultural theory and radical pedagogy, explores cross-cultural issues, immigration, the politics of language, "extreme culture" and new technologies. A Macarthur fellow and American book award winner, he is a contributor to National Public Radio, and a contributing editor to The Drama Review (NYU-MIT).
A founding member of La Pocha Nostra, Roberto Sifuentes has collaborated and performed with Gómez-Peña for many years, performing throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America.