Award-Winning Afro-Cuban Dancer to Give Free Public Performance at Mission San Luis

Live music, dance and discussion on Thursday, March 21, 2013, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Tallahassee, Florida –

]The Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources invites the public to Mission San Luis in Tallahassee for an evening of Afro-Cuban traditional dance.  The event, featuring Neri Torres backed by an ensemble consisting of IFE-ILE dancers and drummers from Tallahassee’s Orisha community, is Thursday, March 21, 2013, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Neri Torres is one of the state’s most highly regarded traditional dancers, and has served as the principal dancer and choreographer for Gloria Estefan. She has been designated a 2013 Florida Folk Heritage Award recipient for her significant contributions to Florida’s folk cultural heritage through her outstanding achievements as a performer, teacher, and advocate for Afro-Cuban traditional dance. Ms. Torres will be joined at Mission San Luis by Orisha drummers from the Tallahassee area and dancers from IFE-ILE, a non-profit organization she founded in 1996.  IFE-ILE is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and cultivation of Afro-Cuban culture and folklore.  Ms. Torres and her ensemble will present various forms of Afro-Cuban traditional dance, including ritual dances based in Orisha religious practice.

The free performance is sponsored by the Department of State’s Florida Folklife Program, the Office of Black Diasporan Culture at Florida A&M University, and Tallahassee Community College’s African Drum and Dance Ensemble in conjunction with the Global Learning Committee. While in Tallahassee, Ms. Torres will also visit Tallahassee Community College and Florida A&M University to conduct instructional workshops with dance students and members of local African drum and dance ensembles. This program is funded in part with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Folk & Traditional Arts Program.

Afro-Cuban Performance Information

DATE:            Thursday, March 21, 2013
TIME:             7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
LOCATION:     Mission San Luis
                        2100 West Tennessee Street
                        Tallahassee, Florida, 32304

About the Florida Folklife Program

The Florida Folklife Program, a component of the Florida Department of State's Division of Historical Resources, documents and presents Florida’s folklife, folklore and folk arts. The program coordinates a wide range of activities and projects designed to increase the awareness of Floridians and visitors alike about Florida’s traditional culture.  Established in 1979 by the legislature to document and present Florida folklife, this program is one of the oldest state folk arts programs in the nation.  For more information about Florida folklife, visit www.flheritage.com/preservation/folklife/.

About the Florida A&M University Office of Black Diasporan Culture

Created in 1992, the Florida A&M University Office of Black Diasporan Culture fosters tolerance and understanding by explaining and demonstrating traditions that have their roots in Africa to members of the campus and larger community. These traditions include folkways that are transmitted through art (costume design and construction), poetry, dance, and music.  It seeks to provide opportunities for students and faculty to participate, in a variety of ways, in events that enhance the academic climate of the campus, as well as to involve them in off-campus educational outreach activities. For more information, visit www.famu.edu/index.cfm?a=VisualArts&p=OfficeofBlackDiasporanCulture.  

About Tallahassee Community College’s African Drum and Dance Ensemble and Global Learning Committee

Tallahassee Community College’s African Drum and Dance Ensemble was founded in 1992. The ensemble’s mission is to learn, share, and explore aspects of Sub-Saharan African and African Diaspora music, dance and culture with the TCC community, Tallahassee, and the world at large.  For more information about the Ensemble, visit www.tcc.fl.edu/College/ArtsAtTCC/Pages/African-Drum-and-Dance-Ensemble.aspx.

The Global Learning Committee cultivates an academic culture of global citizenship in which teaching and learning reflect a commitment to examining, understanding, and engaging the world from multiple cultural perspectives.  The committee strives to infuse global learning across the college curriculum, internationalize the college culture, promote overseas study and service opportunities for students, and expand global learning opportunities for faculty. To learn more, visit www.tcc.edu/welcome/collegeadmin/gov/glc/.