Monday, November 26, 2018

Cyber Monday and Somos Cumbia, somos familia is there!!

Remember to look for your Christmas present!
Recuerda conseguir tu regalo de Navidad!

Compralo aquí!
Today is the Cyber Monday!
Get your book today!

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Home is where the heart is: how sharing Colombian culture helped Karla Florez Albor start a new life in New York


Written by Tatiana Spiegel. 


Like many Colombian immigrants, Karla Florez Albor joins every year the Colombian Day Parade in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens. Immigrating to New York City in the early 2000s was never part of her plan. She was an accomplished dance teacher, movement researcher, and journalist in the city of Barranquilla, in Colombia’s northern Caribbean coastal region, when she met her husband, a Colombian working abroad in New York City. They fell in love, married, and had two daughters. After a few years of bliss with her new family, Karla was faced with having to leave her beloved country behind when her husband’s job asked that he relocate to New York City. Karla made the difficult decision to move her family to the United States, but she knew that she would continue her thriving career in dance education and research. Karla arrived with high hopes for her new American life, and promptly began researching how body movements were affected after 9-11.


...


Karla’s passion for dance and Colombian culture has served her even in the most difficult of times. She is proof that as an immigrant in New York City, you can always find a way to get in touch with your roots, no matter how far away you are from home.




When a person writes about your work the way Tatiana Spiegel wrote about mine you have to be honored and thankful. I invite you to read this article that reflects what I'm passionate about and all the things I have to be grateful to God for. Thank you Tatiana Spiegel for your article and your kind words.

  Read article



Participando con Aangikcuerpo en la ONU

Participando con AangikCuerpo (cuerpo). 
Karla, Mala, Althea

AangikCuerpo (body)
Desde nuestra cotidianidad aportemos a la causa de erradicar la pobreza en el mundo. En el día internacional para la erradicación de la pobreza. En las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York la Cumbia y Colombia dicen presente. 

Con la obra de danza AangikCuerpo las artistas Althea Bazemore Afroamericana, Mala Desai de la India y Karla Flórez Albor de Colombia promueven el concepto de unidad y convivencia como una “Familia Humana” (Maya Angelou). AangikCuerpo (Body) Es una propuesta de movimiento experimental que combina tambores africanos, danza Oddissi y Cumbia colombiana, como elemento unificador.
Obra de danza creada, coreografiada e interpretada por: Althea Bazemore, Mala Desai, Karla Flórez Albor
Música: tambores africanos, poesía sánscrita de Natya Shastra (300 a. C.) cantada por Sangeetacharya Bankim Sethi, cumbia folclórica colombiana La Juliana por Joaquín Pérez y el Grupo Tradición y el poema "Familia humana" de Maya Angelou.

Descripción: mi cuerpo mi templo, mi cuerpo mi oración, mi cuerpo mi hogar
Inspiradas en el concepto de que todos somos parte de una “Familia Humana” hemos creado esta pieza a partir de movimientos de baile tradicionales y desde las capacidades de cada una en su momento de vida. La música es distinta una de la otra,  Nuestra danza asume la responsabilidad de transmitir un mensaje de unión y reconocimiento del valor del otro y del trabajo en comunidad con la esperanza de que inspire a otros a hacer lo mismo. Reconociéndole a la Cumbia el aporte a la unidad.


AangikCuerpo (body)*
Conceived, choreographed and Performed By: Althea Bazemore, Mala Desai, Karla Florez,
Music: African drums, Sanskrit poetry from Natya Shastra (300 B.C.) sung by Sangeetacharya Bankim Sethi, Cumbia Colombian Folkmusic La Juliana by Joaquín Pérez Grupo Tradición, and Maya Angelou’s poem “Human Family” recited by Althea.
Costume: Mala Desai, Karla Florez, Althea Bazemore
Description:  my body my temple, my body my prayer, my body my home
Inspiration drawn from “Human Family” by Maya Angelou (an excerpt), we have come together to create “AangikCuerpo” (body) assembled from traditional dance moves and from each ones capabilities.  Music is as distinct and complex as the lead performer, yet easily embraced by the remaining ensemble.  Our costume is layered in a Colombian skirt with Indian motifs as each performer wears a token reflecting her tradition. Our dance relates to the theme in that we have taken responsibility to deliver a positive and enlightening message through our movement with hopes that it inspires others to do the same.
Performing at ONU

Saturday, October 6, 2018

Lanzamiento del libro Somos Cumbia, somos familia


Una analogía entre la Cumbia colombiana y los procesos familiares.
Una invitación al diálogo no verbal a través de una Rueda de Cumbia.
Una búsqueda permanente de la armonía en la circularidad de las Ruedas de Cumbia.
Las cumbiambas como tradiciones familiares en el folclor del caribe colombiano.

Estas y otras reflexiones están presentes en el libro impreso, y virtual,
Somos Cumbia, somos familia, cuyo lanzamiento se llevará a cabo,
en su versión en español, en la ciudad de Barranquilla; 
este miércoles 10 de octubre de 2018 a las 5:00 pm.
en el auditorio de la Biblioteca Piloto del Caribe del Edificio de la Aduana 

Los directores, coreógrafos de las cumbiambas, cumbiamberos y cumbiamberas
quienes participaron muy amablemente en este estudio;
serán homenajeados por su labor como creadores y generadores de cohesión social a través de su labor en las cumbiambas.
Homenaje especial a mis maestras de castellano Angela Escalante Algarín y de literatura  y Elena Meza Romano quienes me inspiraron a temprana edad a amar la lectura y a escribir mi primer libro en el Colegio Sofía Camargo de Lleras.
Están cordialmente invitados.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Danza para el elefante

Danza para el elefante
Click the link above to watch the video.

November 6, 2017

The elephant tusk pain and my own abdominal pain.
The pain can come on us suddenly to warn us that something is not working well in our body; the more we experience pains in our body the more resistant we become to them. The pain of childbirth makes women stronger, perhaps thanks to my births, I have had a high tolerance to pain, according to the doctor who treated me.
When my abdominal pain appeared, the rocking of my body helped me endure it; when my appendix burst, without my knowing it, the immobility, the rocking and the control of breathing, helped me hold on and not waste my energy crying and shouting; I shouted and cried later.
Could it be that there is a proportional relation between the size of our body, and / or the experiences lived, with the intensity of the pain and the ability to bear it?
Today I unify, with my dance, my abdominal pain to the pain of the elephant’s tusk of the Zoo of Barranquilla, I interpret the swing of his body as his way of enduring the pain, and I join him because I once rocked my body with the same purpose.
I ask for your help, THE ELEPHANT NEEDS TO GO TO THE DENTIST, and requires our financial donation from you or a friend

El dolor nos puede asaltar de repente para avisarnos que hay algo que no está funcionando bien en nuestro organismo; entre mas experimentamos dolores en nuestro cuerpo más resistente nos hacemos a él. El dolor de parto hace a las mujeres más fuertes, quizá gracias a mis partos, he tenido una alta tolerancia al dolor, según dice el médico que me atiendió. 
Cuando apareció mi dolor abdominal el balanceo de mi cuerpo me ayudó a soportarlo; cuando mi apéndice reventó, sin yo saberlo, la inmovilidad, el mecerme y el manejo de a respiración, me ayudaron a sostenerme y a no desperdiciar mi energía en gritos y llantos; esos gritos y llantos los reservé para después.
¿Será que hay una relación proporcional entre el tamaño de nuestro cuerpo, y/o las experiencias vividas, con la intensidad del dolor y la habilidad para soportarlo?
Hoy unifico, con mi danza, mi dolor abdominal al dolor de colmillo del elefante del Zoológico de Barranquilla, interpreto que el balanceo de su cuerpo es su forma de soportar el dolor, y me uno a él porque una vez mecí mi cuerpo con el mismo fín. 
Pido tu ayuda, el elefante necesita ir al dentista, y requiere de nuestra donación económica o de la de un amigo.
Pasa la voz: #ElefanteAlDentista

Contact Karla Florez Cultural Projects

Karla Florez Albor School of Dance Cultural Projects for your Community
Chek the link above to know more about our programs

Itinerant classes and workshops available upon request at your place or in Rego Park

Contact us:

karlaflorezalbor@gmail.com
WhatsApp: 347 4499284

Friday, June 22, 2018

Karla Flórez Albor

Mission Statement:
I believe that creative learning processes begin when we channel our own personal feelings and intentions into cultural forms. Using movements and musical patterns from traditional expressions; I retell and pass on Caribbean and Colombian folk tales to Colombian and different cultural communities in New York. I believe that dance offers the possibility for each body to realize its expressive capacity in every moment of our daily lives. I work to make this statement visible in my life.
Performing artist, born in La Sierrita neighborhood, Barranquilla, Colombia. Dancer with a trajectory of 35 years as an artist of the performing arts, focused on the folk dance of the Colombian Caribbean coast and Contemporary dance technique. Choreographer, teacher, researcher and writer of children's stories inspired by traditional dances represented at Carnaval de Barranquilla. Journalist of the Autonoma University. Master in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language from Jaen University, this has allowed her to develop a bilingual teaching project to teach Spanish and English, through the arts, inspired by Colombian culture.

Certified as a Teaching Artist 101 from the Center for Arts Education (CAE) of the city of New York (2005), Student in the Summer Programs with Dr. Bob Abrahamson Dalcroze methodology at the Juilliard Institute in NY (2005). Fitness Instructor Certified by ShapeUp New York (2016). She has given workshops and conferences related to dance and storytelling in libraries in the United States, Colombia and Greece. Among her stories are: The Green Inchworm, Tamarindo, Children are a nuisance, My home is where I am, Cumbia en gajos de corozo.

She has been a member of Palma Africana Folk Dance School, Kore Danza-Teatro, Member of the International Dance Center of Unesco CID, Co-Founder of Ombligo'e Kazabe Danza Contemporánea Bogotá, Teacher at Tejedores de Sociedad IDCT program in Bogota, Col, and recently been academic director of FolkColombia School of Dance and Music in New York, Spanish Teacher at Diocesis of Broolyn, NY. Her most recent project is Karla Flórez School of Dance.

WORKSHOPS GIVEN:
I have taught reading workshops, storytelling and dance at libraries, schools, cultural and educational centers, events and conferences around the world.

    2016 - 2018 We are Family We are Cumbia, Ongoing Research Project. Barranquilla,Col / New York, USA.
    2018 De Luz y de Agua, International Dance Day. Casa Moreu. Barranquilla, Col.
    2018 De Luz y de Agua, Macondo Fest. Barranquilla, Col.
    2018 Improvisation Contemporary Dance Platform, PatEganso Barranquilla, Col.
    2017 Cumbia Tempo in NY, Queensboro, NY
      2017 “Oral expression: more than words”
Video conference Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Colombia.
      2017 Women to drums and words, International Women Day, TIC´s application. interactive platform B/quilla-New York. Colombian Consulate NY, University Rafael Núñez and Karla Florez Dance School NY.
      2016 - 2015 Christmas Lanterns. Candles, Cultural Workshop cultural traditions to colombian diaspore in NY, Jackson Heights Community.  Colombian Consulate NY and Newark New Jersey.
      2016 International Festival of Folklore, Summer Fest. Budapest, Hungría. With Palma Africana School.
      2016 Queens Museum, NY.  FolkColombia, Colombian School of Dance and Music, Academic Director.
      2015 Narrating in Family to reconcile. Charlie and the chocolate fabric, video-forum, family values. San José School, Barranquilla.
      2015 Narrative Workshop, Fiesta de la Lectura 2, Círculo Abierto Foundation.
      2014-Winged Reptile, Artistic Collaboration with Kike Olaya.
    2013 The Green Inchworm ,Waukegan Library, Chicago, Illinois.
    2011 The Green Inchworm. Peck and Long Island Central Library.
    2009 Day of the Book, United Nations School, Queens, N.Y.
    2009 Cumbia. IATI Theater New York.
    2009 The Map is not the Territory, D.U.M.B.O. Brooklyn, N.Y.
    2009 Mother-Mother, Exhibition. Air Gallery Brooklyn, N.Y.
    2008 The Green Inchworm. Theater Dora Stratou. Dance International Congress, CID UNESCO. Athena’s, Greece.
    2008 Adaptation of “Light is like Water” written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, UNIS, Queens, N.Y.
    2008 The Green Inchworm, Long Island Library, N.Y.
    2008 The Green Inchworm. Middle Country Library and Long Island Museum.
    2008 Hispanic Heritage Month, Long Island Public Library.
    2007 Yonkers, Public Library.
    2007 Adaptation of “Light is like Water” written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, UNIS, Queens, N.Y. Hispanic Heritage Day, Queens, N.Y.
    2007 The Green Inchworm. Forest Hills, Corona, Lefrak, Queens Library.
    2007 The Green Inchworm. NY Book Fair. Astoria , N.Y.
    2006 The Green Inchworm. Evansville University and Library, Kentucky.

Publications:
1. Recounts and Reflections, Contemporary Dance. Bogotá, 1997.
2. The Green Inchworm / El Gusano Verde, children’s book New York 2005.
3. La rama del tamarindo, Children’s Book. New York, 2011
4. Spanish Interactive Syllabary, New York 2013.
5. We are Cumbia We are Family. Barranquilla, Colombia, 2018