Movement as Cultural Memory
Afro-Cuban dance in the U.S. diaspora, and how movement carries history.
The project
Dance can work as a living archive. History remembered through the body.
I am a classically trained ballet dancer who also studies West African movement. A Cuban modern class at the National High School Dance Festival shifted my understanding of technique from aesthetic precision to embodied history, and led me to spend a summer studying Afro-Cuban dance in New York City and Miami, asking where movement comes from, who it belongs to, and how it can be shared ethically.
The research question
How do Afro-Cuban dance communities in the United States preserve cultural memory while adapting traditions to new environments?
The journey
Two cities, one living archive
Research themes
Six threads through the journal
Training Reflections
What the body learns in class.
Filter →Movement Analysis
Close readings of steps and styles.
Filter →Instructor Interviews
Conversations with culture-bearers.
Filter →Rhythm & Music
Dancers in dialogue with living drums.
Filter →Diaspora & Memory
Traditions that crossed the Atlantic and endured.
Filter →Ethics of Exchange
Credit, context, and care across cultures.
Filter →
From the studio
Watch the classes
Recordings from the classes. Captions are being verified.
Mozambique
Watch on YouTubeSá yá Afro-Cuban Folklórico
Watch on YouTubeMolienda de Café
Watch on YouTubeAfro-Cuban Dance with Jinae Suire
Watch on YouTubeThe culmination
An original work, and a lesson to bring home
A three-minute choreographic work drawing on Afro-Cuban vocabulary, taught back at Harvard-Westlake through a lecture-demonstration on the origins and ethics of the movement.
Keep going
Follow the full journey
Read the field notes, watch the classes, and explore the places and people behind the research.