Year: 2025-2026
DanceForce Member: Margarita Espada
Artists: Malcolm Bunce; Jard Lerebours; Gloria Llompart
Community Partners: Brentwood School District; JVC Broadcasting; Nova Music; Stage the Change Organization
Audience: 1,050
County: Suffolk
Inspired by the idea that regeneration can heal the earth, our communities, and ourselves, Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja’s DanceForce project explored the connection between environmental well-being, community resilience, memory, and movement. Rooted in the concept of “propagating” resilience, the project used Contact Dance, improvisation, hip hop, film, music, storytelling, and creative composition to help participants imagine how communities can take root, adapt, and flourish in changing environments.
Teatro Yerbabruja invited Gloria Llompart, a pioneer of Contact Dance in Puerto Rico and faculty member at Brooklyn College, as the principal guest artist. Llompart led a series of community workshops focused on Structured Movement Improvisation, Contact Dance, and Creative Composition. Participants explored intuitive movement, spatial awareness, memory, dreams, stillness, sound, images, and technology as tools for personal and collective expression. Local collaborating artists Malcolm Bunce, Michel Ruff, and Jared Jard Lerebours joined the process as musicians and filmmakers, helping develop a multidisciplinary performance narrative connecting body, music, images, and memory.
Workshops were held on July 5, 12, 19, and 26, and August 2, 9, and 16. The planning process included coordination among Teatro Yerbabruja, the principal artist, local collaborators, Brentwood School District, and community partners to make the project accessible to youth and community members ages 15 and up. The project responded to a growing interest in contemporary and experimental dance in Suffolk County’s Latinx and BIPOC communities, expanding local dance experiences beyond traditional and folkloric forms while honoring cultural memory and community identity.
The work created through the project was presented at Brentwood School on September 15, at the Suffolk County Hispanic Heritage Legislature Celebration on October 14, and at the Stage the Change Conference at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on November 13. The Stage the Change presentation reached more than 1,000 students from across Long Island. Participants received a special invitation to attend as guest performers, representing the only Latinx immigrant student group featured in the conference, and had the opportunity to showcase their original piece for the first time on a major professional stage.
The project was supported by Legislator Samuel Gonzalez, NYS Senator Monica Martinez, JVC Radio, and Brentwood School District, Stage the Change. Promotional outreach included JVC Radio support, Teatro Yerbabruja’s social media, school communication, community networks, and direct outreach to immigrant, Latinx, Black, and youth communities.
Through this project, Teatro Yerbabruja strengthened new and existing partnerships while creating space for Black youth, Latinx immigrants, students, and community members to engage with dance as a form of healing, environmental reflection, cultural expression, and collective imagination.
