Tropical Precarity: Contemporary Dance and Performance in Puerto Rico

This is a two-part event.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 4:30-6:30pm
Film Screening: Fenomenal, Rompeforma 1989-1996
Followed by discussion with filmmakers Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez

Thursday, October 9, 2025, 4:00-6:00pm
Panel Discussion on Inhabiting the Impossible: Dance and Experimentation in Puerto Rico with coeditors Susan Homar and nibia pastrana santiago and dancers and choreographers Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez.

All events will be held at 3512 Haven Hall

Free and open to the public

Please join us for two events with four leading voices on Puerto Rican contemporary dance and performance: scholar Susan Homar, performance artist and dancer nibia pastrana santiago, and choreographers, dancers, and filmmakers Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez. We will be screening the documentary Fenomenal, Rompeforma 1989-1996 about a pioneering performance art festival in Puerto Rico and discussing the anthology Inhabiting the Impossible: Dance and Experimentation in Puerto Rico (University of Michigan Press, 2023) and contemporary dance and performance in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. For more information, please contact Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes at lawrlafo@umich.edu.

Sponsored by the Contemporary Performance in Puerto Rico Working Group with the assistance of the University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and the Arts Initiative.

Cosponsored by the Latina/o Studies Program and the Department of American Culture.