Photo credit: Sally Cohn
Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre
Rosie Herrera, a Cuban-American dancer and coloratura opera singer, grew up in a house that welcomed two faiths. One was Christianity. The other was Santeria, which developed in Cuba from roots in Roman Catholicism and West African traditions.
What all this has to do with dance will be apparent on March 19, when Miami-based Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre appears onstage at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan. In a rare Midwest appearance, the troupe will present Make Believe and Carne Viva, two works that explore the ties between the religious beliefs of childhood and the romantic love of adulthood.
Herrera drew on her own upbringing as a launching point to choreograph Make Believe. She initially wanted to deconstruct the religious iconography of her youth. While creating the dance, she employed novel methods to fully explore the links between faith and love.
Herrera invited a professor of 16th-century Christianity to watch rehearsals; after viewing, he led the troupe in a discussion of visual representations of Christianity and how those had changed and evolved over time. Herrera also sang with a Sacred Harp group. These ensembles specialize in the shape-note singing and four-part harmonies of the early American Christian church and focus more on overall sound than pitch or quality. That approach “emphasizes the community of singers,” she said. Herrera also connected with the Threshold Choir, which sings songs of comfort and joy to people at thresholds of life, for instance illness and death. (Threshold has multiple locations nationally; there is a chapter in Grafton, WI.) Make Believe premiered in 2018 at the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C.
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Carne Viva was originally created to be part of Make Believe. It also addresses religion and romance, though in a way that is “much sparser and more physical” than previous work, according to Herrera’s website. Herrera is in the process of choreographing a third piece that will form a trilogy with Make Believe and Carne Viva.
Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre presents Make Believe and Carne Viva 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 19, at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave, Sheboygan. Tickets are $15/$10 for members and students. The performance contains brief nudity; parental discretion is advised. Tickets are available online at jmkac.org/onstage. The two-hour program includes a 20-minute intermission. JMKAC CAFÉ will be open for refreshments.
