Key Concepts
- Embodiment as resistance and empowerment
- Multiplicity as a superpower
- Art as survival, community, and connection
- Breaking societal molds and reclaiming power
- Cultural identity as a source of strength
- The importance of voice and movement
Overcoming Stuttering and Finding Voice Through Movement
The speaker begins by acknowledging the audience and expressing gratitude. She shares her personal journey of overcoming stuttering and finding her voice through movement and art. Growing up, she felt "othered" when speaking English and struggled to express herself verbally. She describes feeling like a "ball was stuck in her throat." However, dance and music allowed her to articulate what her mouth couldn't. She emphasizes that "when I danced, that ball loosened" and her body could express freedom and joy. Performing gave her body confidence before her mind could catch up.
Challenging Societal Norms and Claiming Space
The speaker argues that society privileges certain ways of speaking and moving, pushing those who don't fit the mold to the margins. She asserts that "embodiment through dance and voice, it's resistance that is empowerment." She identifies as a Los Angeles-based creative and performing artist who choreographs, dances, creates films, and makes music with her family. She highlights the pressure, especially as a Latina artist, to fit into a single, understandable category.
Navigating a Multifaceted Career and Embracing In-Betweenness
The speaker recounts her diverse career path, from flamenco dancing to touring with a Billboard-charting band, acting in theater, choreographing for TV, and teaching in academia. She describes feeling both liberated and like something was missing. She started creating original productions with her family and chosen family, feeling "whole again." She shares a story of forgetting her lines during a theater performance and realizing that "confidence is not something that that is just given to you. It is something that you that you move into." Dance taught her tenacity, which has led to opportunities like features in Time magazine and Dance Teacher magazine.
Art as Community, Connection, and Cultural Identity
The speaker emphasizes the importance of art, arguing that "it is because art connects us to something that is even more powerful: Community, connection, collaboration, ancestral memory, cultural identity, belonging, a reminder of who we truly are." She discusses her PhD research on Latina artists and their experiences navigating resistance and acceptance, transforming limitations into creativity, and claiming space on their own terms. She connects this to her upbringing in a family of immigrants where art was both celebration and survival.
Family and the Power of Artistic Roots
The speaker describes her parents as educators by day and artists by night, raising her and her sister in a creative environment. Their garage became a dance studio, and their living room a recording studio. She recalls performing for guests from the age of six in Spanish dance restaurants. She shares a story about her abuela, who instilled in her a strong work ethic and tenacity. The arts were not optional in her household; they were "life" and "hope."
Finding Home in Artistic Community
The speaker recounts feeling lonely despite her success in New York City's performing arts scene. She longed for a deeper connection and creating with others, not just for others. She found fulfillment in building art with her community, writing music with her father, and creating dance films with her mother. She realized that "home is not a place. It's an artistic family. It's a shared creation. It's community."
Balancing Art, Advocacy, and Academia
The speaker describes balancing art, advocacy, and academia, writing papers backstage and producing creative work between deadlines. She stands tall because she "did not fit that mold" and "shattered it." She has overcome self-doubt, disordered eating, and abusive relationships, and art has been her survival, movement, voice, and power.
Conclusion: Reclaiming Power and Embracing Multiplicity
The speaker concludes with a powerful message: "Each one of us is more than what society limits us to be." She encourages the audience to imagine a world where people connect and communicate, create songs and dance together, and embrace their unique cultural identities. She emphasizes that "You are enough. Yes, you. You can do anything." She urges the audience to take back their power, rewrite their narrative, and never forget the power of their body, voice, and strength. She ends with a song, reinforcing the message of resilience and empowerment.
Technical Terms and Concepts
- Embodiment: The experience of being present in and aware of one's body.
- In-betweenness: A concept from Gloria Anzaldúa, referring to the experience of existing between multiple cultures or identities.
- Multiplicity: The state of being multiple or having many different aspects or elements.
- Radical Community: A community that challenges and seeks to transform existing social structures and power dynamics.
- Female Agency: The capacity of women to act independently and make their own free choices.
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