“Yale’s Professor Emily Coates researches dark matter through choreography. I was not familiar with the concept of art as inward research, and it was life-changing to discover this information. One of my favorite parts of YYGS was that I was expected to challenge, disagree and question everything that surrounded me. So, when I walked out of that breakout session after discussing Professor Coates’s lecture, I had not only learned about art as a way to research, but also as a way to answer the worlds’ biggest questions and as a way to change the world.”
Four years ago, I made a great decision and founded a Folkloric Club at my school. A friend of mine asked me to perform in a new club he was starting, where we would dance and perform the traditional dances of Panama.
Panama is country that we both love–he, being Venezuelan and me, being Salvadoran. Both of us found purpose and opportunity in moving to Panama and we both loved the dances, but also the music and the tradition that surrounds them.
Alongside our Panamanian friend, our professor (who is our mentor and creative director), and a small crew of just six people, we first performed on November 1, 2016.
Now, four years later, we are a much larger crew of fifteen to twenty people. I am proud to say that this adventure endured and will continue to do so for a long time.