NOStalgia POP

Primera Generación Dance Collective
Four people pose in a market.
primerageneraciondc
primerageneraciondc
primerageneraciondc
primerageneraciondc
WORLD PREMIERE
Past event
Price
$27*
Genre
Dance
Season
Winter/Spring 2024
DATE
JUN 28-29
IN-PERSON
FRI-SAT, 8:30 PM
STREAM
SAT, 8:30 PM (PT)
RUNTIME
Approx. 70 minutes, no intermission
COUNTRY
USA
Program
Download Program Notes (PDF)

About

With eclectic, multilingual, Latinx aesthetics, Los Angeles and Riverside-based Primera Generación Dance Collective exposes “el desmadre” (the messiness) that is their first-generation Mexican American experience. Rooted in popular Latine music, movement, and moments, their newest evening-length multimedia dance work, NOStalgia POP, pays homage and cheeky critique to the recuerdos romanticos that link Latine bodies together. A collage of ‘80s pop en Español, the “Latin Explosion” of the ‘90s, and millennial Mexican core weave together with media depictions of gente Latina. Four captivating dancers tell the story of how messy, fruitful, joyful, and painful the development of an ever-growing Latin Pop culture memory has been and the ways in which mainstream media shapes and is (re)shaped by Latine nostalgia.

 

Presented in English and Spanish without surtitles.

The program includes a post-performance talk on June 28, moderated by Dr. Jose L. Reynoso.

Please note: NOStalgia POP contains strobe lights.

A manifestation of joy and celebration of identity and culture.

—

Steven Vargas, Los Angeles Times

NOStalgia POP is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. 

about the artists

Primera Generación Dance Collective

Primera Generación Dance Collective (PGDC) is a Los Angeles and Riverside-based collaborative group formed by Alfonso Cervera, Rosa Rodriguez-Frazier, Irvin Manuel Gonzalez, and Patricia “Patty” Huerta. PGDC focuses on the visibilization of Mexican American corporeality, joy, and loss through movement-based exploration, process, and performance. The collective grounds their works in rasquache (tacky) play and resourcefulness, generating work that speaks to their Latine, working-class experiences. Utilizing a hybridization of text, satire, song, and movement, the collective fuses together their eclectic aesthetics to expose “el desmadre” (messiness) that is embedded in being first-generation Mexican Americans, reclaiming iconography and “low-brow” art to spark brown futurity. PGDC has performed at REDCAT, HomeLA, FLACC Festival, Mission Dance Theater, Highways Performance Space, El Teatro Campesino, Human Resources LA, BlakTinx Dance Festival in Arizona and LA, and NAVEL. In 2020, the collective took over leadership for Show Box LA, a non-profit organization that works to center and manifest trans-communal collaborations, creations, and networks between QTBIPOC artmakers in the LA region and beyond. Collectively, they build platforms that aim to generate resources for first-generation students of color. Over the years, PGDC has produced the (de) Color-Es festival, partnerships with AB Miller High School and The Wooden Floor, and organized events meant to highlight dance as viable career options for first-gen high school students.

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