Here is some very exciting news. Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez present the world premiere of the documentary ¡Fenomenal!, Rompeforma 1989-1996 on Friday, February 17, 2023, 6:00pm (EST), at the Julia de Burgos Theater (School of Humanities) at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras. This event is free and open to the public.

Description: Fenomenal, Rompeforma 1989-1996 is a documentary film about the experimental Latinx festival Rompeforma—a dance, performance, and visual marathon held in Puerto Rico from 1989 to 1996. Co-directed and produced by [dancers, choreographers, and educators] Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez, the documentary is edited by Laura Sofía Pérez and includes music by Eduardo Alegria.

Fenomenal shows excerpts from dozens of performances and critical comments from eyewitnesses, dedicated spectators, the public, and participants—all members of our cultural sphere in the San Juan of our (and those) times. In its six iterations, Rompeforma featured the participation of notable artists in our local and diasporic cultural community, presenting work by over sixty Latinx artists from across the hemisphere. In addition to this dance, performance, and visual marathon, the events included two exhibitions, five theater installations, a retrospective of Petra Bravo’s choreographic work, spoken word events, and dozens of workshops and master classes.

The documentary intends to inspire new generations of Latinx artists and cultural activists, providing evidence of their undeniable creative wealth and their extraordinary contribution to the cultural vanguard of the Americas and the Caribbean.

Ultimately, Fenomenal celebrates, preserves, and makes accessible a substantial part of the archive of the varied repertoire of a generation of Latinx experimentalists in the fields of dance, performance, and curation. A cultural experience often ignored and forgotten by historians, academics, and practitioners in the performance disciplines, Fenomenal confronts a kind of elusive amnesia or even tacit appropriation regarding the unfairly forgotten work of an entire generation of Latinx experimentalists.

With the participation of: Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Antonio Martorell, Antonio Pantojas, Rosa Luisa Márquez, Francis Schwartz, Myrna Renaud, Pedro Pietri, Miguel Algarín, Awilda Sterling, Susan Homar, Viveca Vázquez, Gloria Llompart, Pepón Osorio, Eduardo Alegría, Carmelita Tropicana, Vanessa Vachier, Pepín Lugo, Merián Soto, Noemí Segarra, David Rodríguez, Patricia Hoffbauer, George Emilio Sánchez, Mayra Santos Febres, Arthur Aviles, Elizabeth Marrero, Guillermo Gómez Peña, Petra Bravo, David Zambrano, Patricia Dávila, Ricardo Cobián, Lola Aponte, Pedro Adorno, Coco Fusco, Marion Ramírez, Javier Cardona, Teresa Hernández, James Adlesic, Kathy Westwater, Karen Langevin, Teófilo Torres, David Hernández, Gilberto Blasini, Edín Vélez, Peter Richards, Noel Cruz, Maritza Pérez Otero, Jesús Miranda, Sol Maisonet, María Collazo, Wilson Pico, Oscar Mestey, Ivette Román, Elia Arce, Teresa López, Irene Sosa, Gabri Christa, Priscilla Regalado, Sandra María Esteves, Karl Anderson, Marcus Kuiland Nazario, Nelson Rivera, Luis Eduardo Araneda, Mari Torres, Juan Carlos Quiñones, Juan del Hierro, Julio Peña, Marel Malaret.

For more information, https://www.facebook.com/events/859751405135361 or you may contact Merián Soto at msoto@temple.edu