MIAMI, Sept. 8, 2023 – The Koubek Center at Miami Dade College (MDC) presents Apuntes Americanos-Kanay (American Notes-Kanay), the new multidisciplinary and multimedia work by Peruvian artist Roxana Barba. Performances will take place Oct. 27 and 28 at 8 p.m.
Using elements of theater, dance, music and video, Apuntes Americanos-Kanay examines from various angles fictions about the inhabitants of Peru and their culture as told by French explorers in the 19th century, as well as archaeological research in ancient Peru.
These works helped shape the early Eurocentric vision of the ancestral Peruvian culture. Apuntes Americanos-Kanay offers a creative and critical revision of this vision and a reflection on the construction of identity for both people and individuals. (“Apuntes Americanos” refers to the works of the French explorers. “Kanay” is a word from the ancient Quechua language. It translates as “fire,” and Barba relates it to transformation).
“Those French explorers, such as Charles Wiener, author of Perou et Bolivie (Paris, 1880), were sent to Peru by France to discover the origins of the American man. At that time, some Europeans were not convinced that the man from the New World was human,” notes Barba. “Thousands of artifacts were excavated; skulls, mummies, textiles and objects used in ceremonies and sacred rituals were extracted and taken [to Europe] for study. They even took some children to educate them in the Western ways. And it was through those notes, those objects, and those experiments how Europe began to learn about Peru.”
Born and raised in Lima, Peru, and based in Miami, where she received a BFA in dance from New World School of the Arts, the creative process for this work led Barba to examine her own identity issues.
Her whole family is from Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, located in South Central Peru.
“Little by little, I began to rethink the personal links I had with this iconography, especially on my mother’s side,” said Barba. “I began this work with a certain academic rigor, but as I deepened my search into those links, I entered into fantasy, poetry, and then humor, wanting to turn this colonial past on its head.”
Apuntes Americanos-Kanay, does not have a linear structure, but rather a cyclical one, which reflects the idea of time in the Andean cosmovision, Barba explains, who studied the cosmovision and iconography of pre-Columbian indigenous peoples. The work employs four actor-dancers on stage and uses dance, music and videos accompanied by narrations in Quechua and words and texts in French.
“It’s as if you were descending on an archaeological dig,” Barba said. “But it’s revisiting that past so we can travel to the future and find ourselves as we want.”
Co-produced with the Koubek Center, Apuntes Americanos-Kanay is an adaptation of Apuntes Americanos (2022), presented in co-production with the Alliance Cultural Française de Miraflores and Correlación Contemporánea in Lima, Peru. Both works stem from an interdisciplinary research process of ancestral cosmology and Peruvian history, supported by the Knight Foundation – Knight Arts Challenge (2019).
Choreography, written and directed by Roxana Barba
Performers: Briana Mendez, Lize-Lotte Pitlo, Enrique Villacreces y Roxana Barba
Quechua Narration: Bertha Olivia Pacheco Rosas
Video virtual landscapes: Leo Castañeda
Video vegetation: Marco Herrera
Video animation birds and audiovisual editing: Claudio Marcotulli
Music: Carlos Dominguez
Sculpture: Marco Herrera, Claudio Marcotulli and Lili(ana)
Costumes: Lisu Vega
Lighting: Ana Maria Morales
Texts: Roxana Barba, except for quotes from the book ‘Huaco Retrato’ by Gabriela Wiener.
WHAT: Apuntes Americanos-Kanay, a multidisciplinary and multimedia work created and directed by Roxana Barba
WHEN: Friday, October 27 & Saturday, October 28 at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Koubek Center Theater, 2705 S.W. 3rd St. Miami, FL, 33135
Tickets: $15 purchased online in advance at https://www.squadup.com/events/apuntes-americanos-kanay-danza-at-koubek-center?legacy=0.
About the Koubek Center
A South Florida landmark with a long and rich history as a cultural hub, The Koubek Center is dedicated to building community through the arts. Over the past several decades, the Center has offered a variety of activities, including workshops, art exhibitions, theater performances, literary readings, and concerts. It is a place for artists and local arts organizations to explore and experiment, engage in collaborations and share their work with the community. The Koubek Center includes a 200-seat theater, an expansive garden, classrooms, rehearsal, and multi-use spaces. Built in 1929 by Austrian trader John J. Koubek as a gift to his wife, it was later donated to the University of Miami and acquired by Miami Dade College in 2011. For more information, visit www.koubekcenter.org.
Miami Dade College is an equal access/equal opportunity institution that does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, marital status, age, religion, national origin, disability, veteran’s status, ethnicity, pregnancy, sexual orientation or genetic information. Additional information may be obtained by contacting the College’s Equity Officer: Dr. Joy C. Ruff, at (305) 237-2577 (Voice) or 711 (Relay Service). jruff@mdc.edu