Cumbia for All

Founders, artistic and musical directors: Pablo Mayor, Anna Povich de Mayor
Co-artistic and dance director: Daniel Fetecua

Cumbia for All is Folklore Urbano NYC’s educational program for older audiences, ranging from workshops and performances in middle and high schools, theaters and festivals, to residencies and performances at Senior Centers. 

Led by musicians Pablo Mayor and Anna Povich de Mayor (Artistic and Managing Directors, Folklore Urbano NYC), with dancer and choreographer Daniel Fetecua (Director, Parjaillo Pinta’os Colombian Dance Company, former lead dancer with Limón dance company, former head of Limón’s Pre-professional dance program, current master teacher of Limon’s repertoire with the company), Cumbia for All uses Colombia as a starting point to explore the rich music and dance traditions of Latin America, highlighting Latin America’s indigenous, African, and European/Spanish roots.

For Bookings, Contact: FolkloreUrbanoNYC@gmail.com

CUMBIA for ALL PROGRAMS

Hispanic Heritage Program:

Members of the Folklore Urbano Orchestra present the diverse traditions of Latin America highlighting its African, Spanish/European, and Native American roots, with music from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, including the blend of music that happened in NYC with Latin jazz. Dance Director Daniel Fetecua and dancers from his Pajarillo Pinta’o Dance Company get the audience dancing with steps to rhythms like cumbia, salsa, and merengue.

Residency Programs:

“ROOTS-Explore and create through Latin music, technology, theater, and movement”

6-8 week residency with ENL and heritage students 

A multi-arts and multi-cultural journey

Cumbia for All takes participants on a journey through the cultural history of Latin America, covering select regions including the Caribbean, South American Pacific Coast and Andes. Students will learn rhythms on traditional drums, songs in Spanish, and will explore the movements that pair with these rhythms. Participants will be encouraged to share their own cultural backgrounds and stories, and over the course of the residency will work with the artists to create their own narratives, melodies, and movements, using their own stories, put to traditional dances and rhythms. Pablo Mayor will arrange, record, sample, the music as need be, layering tradition with the unique story of each participant. The end result will combine elements of theater, dance, music, with the traditions of Latin America where many of the participants find their roots. The culmination will be a concert performed by professional artists (ideally with the residency participants, to be decided), using the students’ work as a central theme in the performance.

“Untold Tales”

• Students are invited to share experiences about their lives in their home countries and their journey and arrival here, while teaching artists create choreographies, music, and theatrical vignettes invoking these memories and hopes and dreams for their lives in the USA. A hands on experience that prioritizes personal and collective expression, celebration of heritage, and the opportunity to learn a range of performance practices hands on. Students need no prior experience in performing arts and storytelling to participate.

Senior Center Residencies and Performances

Cumbia for All Healing Arts

• In collaboration with iD Studio Theater in the south Bronx, Cumbia for All brings interactive workshops and performances to memory care institutions around the NYC area, including a 6-month residency in collaboration with Caring Kind of the Alzheimer’s Institute, at the memory care unit at the Hebrew Home in Riverdale

“Cumbia for all” Curriculum for Seniors

Pre-residency Introductory Performance (2 hours with set up)
– Featuring a range of Colombian music performed by Folklore Urbano, dance by Daniel Fetecua and company

Week 1– A brief history of Colombia and origins of its musical and dance traditions
- Geographical overview to four main regions
- Facts about the country
- Introduction song
– Introductory theater exercises (separate workshop)

Week 2-4: Andes region
- Cultural background
- Introduction to the instruments
– Rhythms and dance steps of the region
- Song in Spanish based on rhythms from the region like bambuco, pasillo, torbellino
– Theater workshops based on practices and traditions from the region (separate workshop)

Week 5-7: Pacific coast region
- Cultural background
- Introduction to the instruments
- Drumming 6/8 rhythms based on familiar word play
- Dance steps of the region
- Song in Spanish based on rhythms from the region like Currulao, bunde
– Theater workshops based on practices and traditions from the region (separate workshop)

Week 8-9: Eastern Plains region
- Cultural background
- Introduction to the instruments
- Song in Spanish based on joropo rhythm
- Zapateo introduction (dance step particular to this region)
– Theater workshops based on practices and traditions from the region (separate workshop)



Week 10-12: Caribbean coast
- Cultural background
- Introduction to the instruments
- Learning Cumbia rhythm on the drums through “sapo”
- Song in Spanish based on rhythms from the region
- Cumbia dance
– Theater workshops based on practices and traditions from the region (separate workshop)


Week 13: Dress rehearsal and Final Performances (2 performances, 2hrs/ea)