Camino y Despedida (Walking Farewells) reveals bittersweet aspects of migration, August 29 and 30
Copresentation by TEMPO Dance & Visual Art and VLACC weaves contemporary movement with live music, video projection, and multilingual text
Camino y Despedida (Walking Farewells). Photo by Gabriel Aspee
Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre and TEMPO Dance & Visual Art present Camino y Despedida (Walking Farewells) at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre on August 29 at 7:30 pm and 30 at 2 pm
IN TEMPO DANCE & VISUAL ART’S Camino y Despedida, Spanish for Walking Farewells, six immigrant and refugee Latinx artists express the range of emotions that accompany migration.
Through contemporary dance, live music, video projection, and multilingual text, the performers share stories of departure and belonging. With TEMPO’s co-artistic directors Marco Esccer and Carla Alcántara at the helm of the bittersweet work, expect everything from swift-moving suitcases to original compositions.
Camino y Despedida premiered last winter at the Scotiabank Dance Centre as part of Blackout Art Society’s STAND Festival. A remount is taking place at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre on August 29 and 30, presented in partnership with the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre.
Esccer and Alcántara’s first project as co-artistic directors of TEMPO was a multidisciplinary tribute to revered Mexican feminist writer Rosario Castellanos called Seeds of Resistance, a VLACC commission that premiered at the Roundhouse in May. The two-part piece blends an educational installation about the political side of Castellanos’s work with impactful contemporary dance, spoken word, video projections, and live music.
Alcántara told Stir before Seeds of Resistance premiered that for her and Esccer, “It has been super rewarding being able to navigate through all of that and also recognizing how that is moving us as performers, right? Because we’re both inside—not only directing, but also living the process as performers.”
Expect a similar balance of leadership and participation from the duo with Camino y Despedida, as Esccer and Alcántara are both performing in the piece alongside a team of fellow Latinx artists: Colombian singer-musician Carolina Silva, Brazilian dancer Ysadora Dias, Mexican multidisciplinary artist RCHRDY, and Indigenous Mexican dancer Rodrigo Hervert.
Following each performance, the artists will host a 20-minute talkback with the audience. 
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