2020 will be the year that will never be forgotten in history, as the world stopped due to a global pandemic, but we continued the inspiration and community building we create together. We have been Diverse and United.
EVENTS & COLLABORATIONS
- Three Kings Day at SEA
- RL Retreat: In January the R.Evolucion Latina team of directors, advisors, and consultants spent 3 days together evaluating what we have created over 13 years and recappin on goals and the impact of our mission today. We have created new opportunities for our community and we know it through the successful and meaningful stories of artists, children, parents and collaborators. In this new decade we will continue to celebrate our diversity, push beyond limitations and be about ACTION.
- BroadwayCon for the 5th year we joined the NYC Broadway Convention, sharing the message of a Diverse and Untied Broadway. Our connection and love with Broadway comes from the incredible artists that are part of the industry. We were honored to have a bigger presence this year with a dance performance on the main stage, to a Writer’s panel and a Choreographer’s panel with artists that are advocates of art and culture.
- Unique Choreographic Lens – Panel with choreographers Lorin Latarro, Graciela Daniele, Matthew Steffens, Alex Sanchez, Valeria Solomonoff
- Writing the Next Scene – Panel with composer and writers Alex Dinelaris, Jaime Lozano, Michelle J. Rodriguez & Eric Ulloa.
- Entre Cafes – We joined BroadwayWorld Spain in a Special Edition of ENTRE CAFÉS, a series of conversations with international and Broadway theatre artists who spoke about topics very close to the Latinx communities on Instagram Live. Our director and founder Luis Salgado, also an actor and producer (In The Heights, On Your Feet), led these conversations with Juanjo Gonzalez from BroadwayWorld Spain. Artists part of Entre Cafes: Jaime Lozano, Gabriela Garcia, Marta Ribera, Tanairi Vazquez, Carlos Gonzalez, Ana Isabelle from the 2020 movie remake of “Westside Story’Janet Dacal & Robin De Jesus, Luis from the Broadway In The Heights Seth Stewart, Chris Jackson, Joshua Henry – Hamilton Broadway, Ricky Tripp, Jon Rua, Gabrielle Sorrentino, Antuan Raimone Hamilton.
- Happy Hours – Theatre Talks hosted by Luis Salgado and Juanjo Gonzalez from BroadwayWorld Spain, conversations concentrated on stories and focus points by musicals of the last 2 decades and their social impact and storytelling. This was a collaboration with BroadwayWorld Spain connecting audiences from Europe, the United States and Latin America. Artists part of Happy Hours: Tony award winner Alice Ripley (Next to Normal, American Psycho & More), Broadway choreographer Lorin Latarro (Curious Incident of a.., Waitress & Mrs. Doubtfire) and Argentinian Producer Pablo del Campo. Ana Villafañe, Ektor Rivera (On Your Feet) and Marcos Santana (On Your Feet, In The Heights), Kelly Devine (Come From Away), Jerry Mitchell (Pretty Woman, The Musical), Gabriela Garcia (CHICAGO), Ahren Victory (CATS, National Tour), Heather Hogan (The Ferryman, Hamilton) Valeria Cossu (Mayumana), Francesc Abos.
- Jaime Lozano & The Familia Listening Party. RL produced Jaime Lozano’s Zoom Listening Party of his album “Songs by an Immigrant”.Immigrants and their stories are what makes us richer and stronger as a society worldwide. While we have heard many stories of the struggles immigrants experience and we all know what it is like to reach for our dreams, we have not had the opportunity to hear these heartening dreams of immigrants through music, until now.
BEYOND WORKSHOP SERIES
On March 12th Broadway, sports, schools and businesses shut down, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Starting just one week after, RL sprung into action recruiting 22 teaching artists to relieve the stress and uplift hearts by providing 52 dance classes and 20 Shakespeare classes in 6 weeks, free of charge to 620 adult students. We connected with our students and were able to help our teachers during these difficult times. Through the years these professional artists have donated their time to our mission and we felt the necessity to honor and stand by these individuals by providing a small income. We collaborated with Pregones/PRTT, for a 3rd year with new artistic endeavors through the Beyond Workshop Series and the Raul Julia Training Unit. An extension of the BWS we created Industry Nights, weekly virtual conversations to interact with our community and artists that continue to inspire our work. Artists part of Industry Nights: Sergio Trujillo Tony Award for Best Choreography. He was honored with the Tony in 2019 for Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Kenneth McGee (Lion King, Once On This Island), Nancy Ticotin (HalfTime), Mary Anne Lamb (Fosse), Greg Uliasz – MSA Talent Agency.
DARE TO GO BEYOND PERFORMING ARTS CAMP (D2GB)
Our 13th Annual Summer camp moved to an online platform in order to continue to connect with our campers through the focus of being Diverse and United. As always our family of artists from Broadway and the Latinx community stepped up to make this one of the most impactful camps even in this unique platform serving over 250+ children from 9 different countries.
DARE TO GO BEYOND SCHOOL ARTS PROGRAM
Lawrence Massachusetts! For the first time RL is providing professional development training to performing arts teachers in the district of Lawrence Massachuttes. We are sharing not only performing arts training, but we are integrating Latin history, culture and ways to engage with the 95% hispanic student body and the immigrant population.
DANCE-A-THON 2020
Together we raised $41,897 surpassing our goal of $40,000. This virtual event had the participation of 21 fundraisers, 9 choreographers, over 57 dancers, editors, videographers, voice-over artists, hosts, community leaders from Ballet Hispánico, Limón Dance, Pregones Theatre and more. We are so grateful to everyone that said YES to this project. 636 views on YouTube which means more people than ever were able to be part of this event thanks to the Zoom experience.
Viva Broadway – Hispanic Heritage Month. Our Founder, Luis Salgado and new advisory board member Sergio Trujillo directed and choreographed Viva Broadway’s Hear our Voices a Virtual Concert produced by Playbill and the Broadway League to benefit Broadway Cares, Broadway Bridges and R.Evolución Latina. Thanks to this virtual event RL received a $25,000 grant from Broadway Cares.
RL TEAM
- Sergio Trujillo joins the advisory board and Matthew Steffens joins team of Directors.
- NextGen RLers. Inspired by the D2GB Camp a group of RL campers 14 and up created a group of young leaders that are engaged and Daring to go beyond through a social media presence and supporting RL events and Programs using their voices and talent.
- RL International Leaders
- R.Evolución Latina’s mission continues to reach more people in different countries thanks to the support of our International Leaders and TU ARTE RECONSTRUYE (Art Rebuilds) initiative. Eight international artists from Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia have expanded RL’s mission with a desire to give back to support local communities in their countries.
- A light gone too soon, Doreen Montalvo. This year we lost a woman who was our friend, and an example of following your dreams. Doreen Montalvo Mann was the amazing energy and talent who made her Broadway debut with In the Heights in 2008.
RL & Beyond
- Tu Arte Reconstruye – Perú. In Lima Perú, people donated clothes, shoes, and blankets to benefit 800 children from 2 communities in Villa Maria del Triunfo. This event was created by RL international leaders in Peru, Veronica Navarro, Harold Echevarria, Veronica Alvarez, Estefania Vasquez and Juan Pablo Lostannau.