July 18-August 1, 2005, Lima Peru

This course offers a general introduction to performance and cultural politics in contemporary Peru, along with an intensive workshop with the Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani in their cultural center in Lima, Peru. The course will draw on the Duke University Press Peru Reader, along with writings by Mario Vargas Llosa, Luis Millones, Deborah Poole, Raul Romero, and others, to explore Andean performance cultures. We will also rely on guest lectures by leading Peruvian scholars.

Having had a long Colonial history, diverse groups of immigrants have been added to culturally diversified autochthonous population. Today there is a rich heritage of distinct, hybrid and multiple forms of cultural expression, which have their own specificity and are put into work for different agendas. We will begin with an introduction where we will learn about Andean traditional forms of performance as well as of performative actions designed in an urban context. But in order to gain an overview about this complex and rich landscape we will work on two topics that are important in understanding the link between performance and contemporary Peruvian society: (i) performance and human rights activism; and (ii) performance marketing and nationalism

In addition, the course provides an introduction to the stage repertoire of Yuyachkani, as well intensive workshop classes in voice, body work, mask construction and performance, and Afroperuvian percussion, among others. Students will prepare a paper at the end of the course, to be turned in after returning to the U.S. While the workshop will involve practical training, it is open to those with and without performance experience. Knowledge of Spanish is desirable but not required.

Peru’s most important theatre collective, Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani has been working since 1971 at the forefront of theatrical experimentation, political performance, and collective creation. “Yuyachkani” is a Quechua word that means "I am thinking, I am remembering"; under this name, the theatre group has devoted itself to the collective exploration of embodied social memory, particularly in relation to questions of ethnicity, violence, and memory in Peru. Their work has been among the most important in Latin America’s so called “New Popular Theatre,” with a strong commitment to grass-roots community issues, mobilization, and advocacy. Yuyachkani won Peru’s National Human Rights Award in 2000. Known for its creative embrace of both indigenous performance forms as well as cosmopolitan theatrical forms, Yuyachkani offers insight into Peruvian and Latin American theatre, and to broader issues of postcolonial social aesthetics.

Course Materials and Information:

Introduction

Syllabus

Schedule

Readings

Who's Who

For more information on the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, visit http://www.hemisphericinstitute.org.