Sandra Paola López Ramírez

Sandra Paola López Ramírez (EdM, MFA) is a latinoamericana dancemaker, improviser and performance activist. Her community-based interdisciplinary work plays with gender, identity and sociality, and it has taken her through the U.S., Colombia, Brazil, Cyprus, France, Germany, Denmark, Canada and Mexico. Since moving to the United States from her native Colombia in 2004, she has developed her practice to integrate her creative process and her community organizing efforts. Driven by her commitment to transformation and healing, Sandra Paola co-founded and directs the Institute for Improvisation and Social Action (ImprovISA) – an organization empowering diverse populations to develop through performance and improvisation on the U.S.-Mexico border. She has a vibrant artistic practice grounded on making visible Africana and Indigenous influences in her field and is a committed inclusive educator at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Residency/Fellowship

Equal Justice 2017/2018

Website

sandrapaolalopez.com

Location

El Paso, TX USA

In Community: Reflect, Respond, Act

I wonder about celebrating life within this madness. Creating safe spaces for joy and healing for Black bodies, for Brown bodies, for Trans bodies, for Indigenous bodies, for poor bodies, for immigrant bodies, for social leaders, for the memory of our ancestors and for our non-human kin.

I wonder about our capacity to recognize Earth’s gifts and ki* teachings. Our Mother is suffering and dying, yet ki continues to give willingly, unabatedly, and without a concern for worthiness. Ki feeds us all, gives us all clean air to breathe and water to drink. Could we (the colonizer and colonized) become better listeners? Could we learn to observe deeply? Could we learn from plants, animals, mountains and water? Could we begin to re-member? Could we relearn to see ourselves in our Mother’s reflection? Could we begin to unmask the illusion of separation? –Sandra Paola López Ramírez

*Robin Wall Kimmerer offers ki/kin as pronouns to address the natural world as a subject (rather than an object). I accept her offer and use them as a way to recognize the beingness in all living things.