About
El Teatro de Danza Contemporanea de El Salvador (TDC) was originally established in San Salvador in l994 by Director Miya Hisaka Silva and Associate Director Francisco Castillo. TDC is distinctive because it is the first professional company in the history of El Salvador, inclusive of contemporary, classical and indigenous works, and because its objectives go beyond performance. The Company originally united artistic leaders from all regions of El Salvador with a common vision for dance, as well as a driving commitment for the re-development of the country after a 12-year civil war. TDC uses dance as a means to: preserve a distinctive Central American history/culture; for self-expression; for the restoration of lost history; for healing and the development of human dignity; to maintain dialogue and exchange between two Central America societies – one in USA and one in Central America, and to help build a new vision and fundamental values upon which a changing US Hispanic society is being built. TDC is committed to a country, to its people and to its unique history with an insistence on artistic excellence. The Company’s repertory reflects through dance the human spirit, with the hopes to inspire in people the ability to dream!
TDC has three major missions: The professional dance company; the Youth Dance Leadership Program (YLP); and its School. The Company was established first in l994 and also began internationally touring that same year. In l997, TDC built its original school, El Centro para Liderazgo en las Arts (Center for Leadership in the Arts, CELARTE), El Salvador’s first professional performing arts school committed to the development of artists with an interest in the arts and public service. This is also when the YLP became established, working with hundreds of youth and families, dancers, painters and youth gangs, as well as taking dance for a first time since the signing of the Peace Accords to over 38 rural pueblos outside San Salvador. Together, TDC/CELARTE brought international acclaim to El Salvador through the arts. TDC expanded to their second homebase, Washington, DC, in l998. TDC’s offices were C/O the Office of the Consulate of El Salvador; the YLP housed at the Centro Nia; and the Company is In-Residence at Joy of Motion Dance Center. TDC became a Non Profit 501C3 Institution in WDC in 2000.
TDC’s YLP geared towards gifted and talented Salvadoran, Hispanic, African-American and Caribbean youth (ages 6-16) is in partnership with institutions in Mt. Pleasant area. This year-round program provides youth the opportunity to train, perform, and gain leadership skills. It provides dance technique, leadership classes, public service hours providing direct services to its underserved communities as well as performance experience. Each season, the YLP culminates in their year end presentation, “Entre Dos Mundos”, involving hundreds of youth and families reflecting their cultural heritage and current sentiments of the community. The YLP overarching purpose is: to nurture and develop the next generation of Hispanic leaders through focusing on the most gifted and talented youth; to develop a pride, confidence, a new vitality, a sense of healing; to help the community develop a sense of empowerment; to help the community better focus on issues of acculturation; to help increase employment, reduce poverty, pregnancy and teenage violence; and to help to develop greater understanding and tolerance between the different cultural communities in the District of Columbia
-Presented by The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, Dance Place, Central American Olympics, University of UNAM/Mexico City, Tribeca Center in NYC, The Cleveland Clinic’s Art & Medicine Institution, Santa Clara, Georgetown University, The University of San Francisco, San Francisco’s Cowell Theater, among other prestigious sites;
-Completed tours and residencies to New York City, San Francisco, Cleveland and Central America and receiving critical acclaim from the Washington Post, New York Times, Dance Magazine, La Prensa Graficia, among other international press;
2009-2010:
-13th Cultural Exchange with El Salvador, July 2010;
-Highlight performance at the White House with President Obama for “Fiesta Latino”;
-Highlight performance at the Embassy of El Salvador in celebration of National Independence Day;
-Expanded local Seasons at Dance Place, The Tivoli Theater and American Dance Institute;
-Expanded performance sites to the University of MD/College Park, College of S. MD in La Platta, among others;
-Groundbreaking work with the Cleveland Clinic’s Art & Medicine Clinic bringing innovative arts/healing programs to 4 million patient views and 38,000 affiliate doctors from Ohio to Abu Dhabi;
-Site visits to El Salvador to work with new government officials to help to re-open doors for cultural exchanges to the US;
-Increased funding from 18 new institutions.
2006-2008:
-Debut local season at Georgetown University’s New Gonda Theater at their new 30 million dollar installation’s Davis Performing Arts Center;
-Continued expansion of local outreach program, “Llevando la Danza al Pueblo”, to Cardoza High, the Maret School, among others.
-Recipient of the University of San Francisco’s Social Justice and the Arts Jesuit Fellowship;
-East Coast West Coast Performance Exchange with the City of San Rafael, Marin County and The Cowell Theatre in San Francisco;
-Expanded Youth Leadership and Civic Responsibility Program to the San Francisco Bay Area through the generous support of the San Francisco Foundation, Marin Arts Council, and the Everloff Fund.
2002-2005:
-Central American and Caribbean Olympics Game Commission, Opening Ceremony in El Salvador involving 4,000 athletes, 1,500 performing artists with over 25,000 spectators;
-President of El Salvador and the Latin American Cultural Space of DC’s Award for Outstanding Community Service to the District of Columbia;
-The Smithsonian Institution’s Latino Initiatives and Education Program Commission of “Stabat Mater” – a dance and video documentary in collaboration with 12 of Central America’s most renown human rights photographers;
-Catholic University Dept. of Music and TDC’s collaboration in the production of “Agamemnon”;
-Expanded performance sites to DC LatinoFest, UN Commission for Refugees, The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the Publick Playhouse, The Theatre Project of Baltimore, among others;
-Consolidation of the Youth Leadership and Civic Responsibility Program based at Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center (Centro Nia) with over 80 Hispanic youth participants from Wards 1 and 2, generously sponsored by the Meyer Foundation.
-Consolidation of Outreach Program, “Llevando la Danza al Pueblo” in collaboration with DC Arts Collaborative, The Smithsonian Institution, DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. First time, bringing together of DC’s most highly populated Hispanic schools to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month at the Smithsonian. Partner schools included Oyster Bilingual, Ross, Fillmore, Adams, Brightwood, Walker Jones, Sacred Heart School and Church, Bancroft, HD Cooke and the Studio School, among others.
-1999-2002:
-Recipient and winner of a worldwide competition involving 14 competing countries for what has now become world model youth leadership programs funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, and Humanistic Institute for the Cooperation of Developing Countries (HIVOS). A first of it’s kind program involving dancers and muralists and inner city youth gangs (mara gangs “13” and “MS”) in an effort to curb inner city violence in El Salvador. This model transferred to DC in l999.
TDC has come a long way: with its roots from El Salvador, expanding to Washington, DC in l994, beginning with one performance at Dance Place, and today presenting over 55 performances/season, reaching a diverse audience of 75,000/year. Today, TDC is renown for their powerful, passionate and elegant repertory reflecting a distinctive Central American aesthetic with an expressive and exuberant style. “Infused by the passion of living, the Company gives soulful meaning to the term expression dance.” (Washington Post) “With compelling simplicity, freshness, directness in dancing, powerfully in the moment…physically sumptuous…” (New York Times).