Dance professor to premiere original work created with Guggenheim Fellowship award


Dance professor draws inspiration from his native Brazil for Dreaming Amazonia, an original composition completed with a Guggenheim Fellowship award.

By Isadora Rangel

In May of 2008, assistant professor Augusto Soledade learned he was one of only 35 artists and scholars to receive a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for the 2008-09 academic year. More than 500 applicants had applied in the Latin American category. A member of the Theater and Dance Department, Soledade was awarded a $34,000 grant.

Less than a year later, in January of 2009, more recognition came: a $10,000 Dance Miami Choreographers Fellowship, given to Soledade for the second time by Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs. Soledade used the two awards plus other grants he received through the company he directs, Brazz Dance Theater, to produce the original piece Dreaming Amazonia. The composition is premiering April 10-11 at the Colony Theater on Miami Beach.

A native of Bahia, Brazil, Soledade started working on Dreaming Amazonia in 2007. His inspiration came from a desire to contrast the current state of the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous people with urban reality. For his research, Soledade spent 15 days with indigenous communities in the Amazon.

“I grew up in Brazil and I noticed that in less than 50 years, Brazil has gone from discovering its native people and natural resources [in the 1970s] to fighting to not destroy them,” he said.

Soledade calls his work “Afro-fusion,” a mixture of Afro-Brazilian dance and contemporary. He says one thing it is not is folkloric or traditional Brazilian dance.

“It is not important to me to present a specific culture. I try to look for universal meaning in my work even though it is inspired by my cultural roots and how I see myself as Brazilian,” he said.

The Guggenheim fellowship came at the right moment to sponsor the production of his piece, but the honor, said Soledade, is about much more than the money that comes with the award. Soledade has received at least half a dozen awards before, but becoming a Guggenheim fellow is special.

“It is something that is recognized anywhere in the world by people who know about art,” he said about the award given since 1929. Overall, the Guggenheim Fellowship program selects approximately 220 scholars and artists from among 3,500 to 4,000 applicants per year.

An assistant professor at FIU since 2004, Soledade was drawn to FIU because of its concentration in cultural dance. He was interested in bring an Afro perspective to the program. This semester he is teaching Africa Diaspora Dance 3, in which he introduces some Afro-Brazilian elements accompanied by live percussion, and Composition 2, a choreography class.

Before joining FIU, Soledade taught at Smith College, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Wells College, and University of Rochester.

Dreaming Amazonia will be performed by Brazz Dance Theater, a Miami-based company founded by Soledade in 1998. Two other FIU professors are involved in the project: Orlando Garcia, professor of the School of Music, created the original score for the choreography and Jacek Kolansinski, assistant professor of the Art and Art History department, will have an interactive installation at the performance site.

The Colony Theater is located at 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach. Tickets can be purchased at the box office or from Ticketmaster.

For more information about the event, please call 305-358-5885.