Studio/LAB Work-In-Progress Performance

Vera, is a film and live performance exploration that explores personal erasure of culture as a direct result of xenophobia in Phoenix Arizona. Elisa uses Contemporary modern dance as well as waving and improvisational structures to tell her story.

"I finally felt like I could talk about something that I experienced relating to my ethnicity. Since I am half Latinx and half European I never felt as if I fit on either side. Being a non spanish speaking Latinx has always been a strange experience. I wanted to talk about the erasure I had been through to avoid descrimination so close to the border. We did not learn spanish growing up because my mother did not want us to have any accents that would set us apart, when she was attending school, it was understood that if a student spoke spanish in the classroom, there would be physical punishments. My mother was attempting to protect us from the discrimination and trauma she had experienced. Academia always wanted me to use my heritage to make work, to use my ethnicity to get scholarships and grants, this always felt wrong. I feel like Academia is looking for every person of color to have a similar experience/tragedy story. What I am hoping for is that we can learn to appreciate each others' nuances and not let the color of one's skin or ethnicity pigeon hole each person. Everyone is an individual, there is no one size fits all. This is my way of staying accountable for my experience. I can't speak for others, all I can do is speak for myself."