My work is a reflection of the contrasts in my life, divided and integrated for the last years of my life in the United States, but with its origins in Cuba, where I was born and raised.

In my painting, I merge my history as an Afro-Cuban and Modern dance performer with my present as a visual artist. From Cuba, I incorporate Afro-Cuban spirituality, the rural landscapes of eastern Cuba, my childhood, and my memories of growing up in a Communist island.

From my present world in the US, I include the modern cityscape and technology, elements that in my work contain a toned down violence that I express in a naïve, although sometimes grotesque, manner. I discreetly use representations of Afro-Cuban elements, combined with images of control, subjugation and destruction that result in the interplay in power relations, whereby the bases of life and death, survival and extinction are managed.

At times I prefer to free myself from the portrayal of objects and instead try to evoke, through the aesthetic sense, the energies of Afro-Cuban deities. Still at other times I simply choose to record my emotions and feelings of the moment without any conscious self-censorship. I’m interested in making work that mirrors my experience as an Afro-Cuban immigrant in transition, and represent the disparity and integration that is born from the intensity of rupture and being re-born.


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S i l f r e d o L a O V i g o
3865 Granada St San Diego Ca 92104
silfredolao@hotmail.com
619 358 5117

PROFESSIONAL DANCE TRAINING:

1989-1994

National School of the Arts, Havana, Cuba B.A.,
May 1994; Certified as Dance Professor and Professional dancer;
Distinction in both modem and folkloric dance

1993-1994

Trained and performed with the Cuban National Folkloric Company and Danza Contemporanea de Cuba

1986-1989

Vocational School of the Arts, Santiago de Cuba

PROFESSIONAL PERFORMING EXPERIENCE:

2003- 2010

Palomar College Faculty Performance

1999-2002

Company Dancer, ODC/San Francisco
Tours include: The Joyce Theater, New York, NY; Performing Arts
Center, Newark, NJ; The Getty Museum Concert Series, Los Angeles, CA;
Leverkusen, Germany; University of Hawaii, UC Santa Cruz, Cal State LA,
Cal State Monterey Bay, George Mason University, Kentucky Center for the Arts,
Penn State University, Vanderbilt University and four seasons at the Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

1999

Performed with Robert Moses' Kin, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and
Theater Artaud, San Francisco

1994-1998

Soloist with the professionally touring company Cutumba: Ballet Folkorico
Afro-Cubano, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

GUEST PERFORMANCES:

2007
11th Annual Exploration in Afro-Cuban Dance and Drum, Humbolt University, Acadia CA
Black Choreographer Festival, San Francisco, CA
Cuban Spirit, City College, San Diego, CA

2003
Guest Dancer, "Bravura!" The Blankenship Ballet Company, Riverside California

Guest Dancer and Choreographer, "Mis Suefios, Mis Ideas," San Francisco, CA

2002
Guest Dancer and Choreographer, "The Quilt Project," San Francisco, CA

Artistic Director and Featured Performer of Emese, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival

2001
Principal Dancer and Guest Choreographer for the Warner Brothers film The Matrix Reloaded

2000
Guest Artist with Cuban company Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, California Tour

1999
October 2000 Guest Soloist with Cuban company Ban Rra Rra, California Tour
Guest Soloist in the "Peña Cultural Colombiana" Fort Mason Center

1999
Soloist in "Celebrating the African Diaspora" performance University of California, Berkeley

Guest Soloist in the Retrospective of Cuban Dance Performance, La Pella, Berkeley, CA, and Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA

1999
"Music-at-Noon" series: Cuban Dance Performance Santa Clam University

TEACHING FIELDS:

Modern Dance: Cuban modem technique (based on Graham, Cunningham, Dunham and Limon techniques)

Folkloric Dances: Cuban-Haitian Folklore (VodiI, Mason, Gaga, lbo, Congolaye, Tumba Francesa, Dahomey), Yoruba traditions (dances of the orishas), RegIa Congo (palo), Carabali, Ia Conga, Chancletas

Popular Dances: Son, Salsa/Casino, Rumba, Cha-Cha-Cha, Mambo, Cuban and Haitian merengue, Pilon

Musician: percussionist (tumbadora and bata drums)

TEACHING AND CHOREOGRAPHING EXPERIENCE:

2009-2010
African American Workshop, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

2007
Master Class, 11th Annual Exploration in Afro-Cuban Dance and Drum, Humbolt University, Acadia CA
Master Class , Black Choreographer Festival, San Francisco, CA
Guest Choreographer, Cuban Spirit, City College, San Diego, CA

2005
Guest Artist Residence, Cal State University, San Marcos, CA

2002-2003
Weekly classes in modem and folkloric dance at Rhythm and Motion, Citicentre Dance Theatre and Dance Mission studios

Weekly classes in Caribbean Dances at Everett Middle School and Synergy High School

2002
Afro-Cuban Dance Workshops sponsored by the World Dance Office, Portland State University

"Inside Out;" Choreography commissioned by ODC Dance Jam, a youth dance company

"Mosaico Haitiano; " Choreography commissioned by Ire lie

ODC/San Francisco three-week residency at the University of Hawaii, Hilo as part of the Hawaii Concert series

"Mambo;" Choreography commissioned by the Oakland Blues Organization

Artistic Director, Emese, Messengers of the African Diaspora



1999-2001

Taught weekly class in Cuban and Haitian folkloric dance at Citicentre Dance Theatre, Oakland, CA

Quarterly master classes in Cuban Folkloric and Popular Dance, Dance Arts Academy, Los Angeles, CA

June 2000
ODC/San Francisco three-week residency at the University of Florida, Gainesville;

Taught master classes in modem technique and Afro-Cuban dance to UF dance majors

May 2000
Taught week-long seminar on Cuban modem technique Department of Dance, Santa Clara University

1998-1999
Taught master classes in the Department of Dance, Stanford University;
Commissioned to choreograph "Chancletas" piece and "Son" piece for the Stanford student dance company Los Decanos and Haitian piece for Kuumba Dance Group

Taught weekly class in Cuban-Haitian folkloric dance at Dance Mission, San Francisco, CA

1998
Taught master classes in Latin American Popular Dance and Cuban Haitian Folklore at San Francisco City College and Foothill College

Taught weekly classes in Afro-Cuban folkloric dance and salsa at the Mountain View-Los Altos Adult Education Program

Taught bi-weekly class in salsa and master classes in Cuban-Haitian folklore at the Cubberly Community Center, Palo Alto

1995-1998

Professor of Folklore and Modem Dance technique for the dancers of Cutumba

FELLOWSHIPS

Peninsula Community Foundation grant initiative to teach weekly classes at the Girls Club, East Palo Alto, CA

Designated an Artist-in-Residence Fellow, California Arts Council (declined)

FESTIVALS AND COMPETITIONS:


1995 to present
CubaCaribe Festival, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
Florida Festival of Dance, Miami Florida
Dance West, Western United States platfonn of the Seventh Rencontres Choreographiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Los Angeles, CA
Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro, Cadiz, Spain
Performances in Lanzarote, La Palma, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
Festival lnternacional de Danza, Camaguey , Cuba
Festival del Son Miguel Matamoros, Santiago de Cuba
CUBADISCO, Havana, Cuba

REFERENCES:

Patriceann Mead, Director of the Afro-Cuban and Bracilian Drum and Dance Ensamble at Palomar College, San Marcos.(760)744-1150
Brenda Way, Founder and Artistic Director, ODC/San Fr.mcisco (415) 863-6606
Susan Cashion, Director of the Dance Division, Stanford University (650) 725-0738 Elizabeth Chin, Department of Anthropology, Occidental College (323) 259-2546
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