Welcome back, or should I say – Bienvenidos – to part one of our blog experience to Colombia! If you didn’t know, now you do, South Chicago Dance Theatre took a full week trip to Colombia, South America. While there, we visited the cities of Bogota as well as Medellin (pictured above). We had the opportunity to collaborate with two other companies and their directors, experience the culture, eat their food, learn and speak their language, and most of all we engaged in our Choreographic Diplomacy mission. The trip itself is too much for just one blog, so I thought I’d split it into multiple parts for you to enjoy. It’s a trip I will never forget full of memories made with each other as well as exposure to a culture totally different from our own.

To give you a broad stroke overview, I thought I’d start Part 1 of the blog explaining our day-by-day while in Colombia with some simple details. Separate blogs will include details on the collaboration between the three companies present, as well as a reflection of the process, the trip, and everything in between!

Day 1: Sunday, October 15: A long travel day to Bogota, Colombia! A total of 9 dancers plus Kia arrived to Chicago O’Hare Airport at 5:30am to begin our long flight pattern to Colombia! Once we arrived safely, we enjoyed dinner in our hotel with our South Korean friends from Choomna Dance Company!

Day 2: Monday, October 16: Our longest day of rehearsal with Choomna Dance Company as well as Casa Tumac from Colombia. The three directors of each company worked together to choreograph a collaboration piece that is 15 minutes long! It’s a beautiful mesh of our styles of dance and was completely put together during this day!

Day 3: Tuesday, October 17: SHOW DAY! We had technical rehearsal and performed in our first show of the trip in Bogota for a beautiful audience!

Day 4: Wednesday, October 18: A free day to explore Bogota! For our last day in this beautiful city, us company members enjoyed brunch, walking around, exploring a museum, taking a cable car to the top of a mountain (10,000 ft above sea level!!) and enjoying an amazing dinner together on top of the mountain!

Day 5: Thursday, October 19: A travel day to Medellin, Colombia! We took a flight early morning and enjoyed the rest of the day to catch up on rest as well as explore the city of Medellin!

Day 6: Friday, October 20: SHOW DAY! We had another full day of technical rehearsal and a performance in Medellin for a very lively and engaged audience. Our last performance of the trip, it was so fun.

Day 7: Saturday, October 21: A free day to explore, buy souvenirs, and sight-see. At the end of the day we returned to the festival to view more dance and musical performances. We joined in on the dance floor and followed along with the dancing and singing! It was beautiful to be fully immersed in the Colombian culture.

Day 8: Sunday, October 22: Our long travel day back to the United States. It was sad to see such a great time go, but we were all insanely grateful to have had this experience and to see all that Colombia has to offer – it’s beauty, it’s culture, and it’s love for the arts.

I hope this small glimpse into our trip made you excited to learn more! In our next blog, I will take you through the process of our Choreographic Diplomacy adventure and explain how our 3 artistic directors made such a beautiful piece based on community and coming together.

As always – stay tuned!