INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) -- An Indianapolis dance instructor is using movement to bridge cultures and educate the community.
She's doing this through her unique fusion of modern dance with African and African American traditions.
At Iris Rosa Dance Studio, movement is a language that speaks across generations and cultures. Iris Rosa Santiago, owner and a dance instructor at the studio, said, "Movement expression always comes, from my perspective, from a historical perspective. Why we dance and why we express is our lived experiences."
A choreographer, Rosa Santiago is a longtime educator at Indiana University Bloomington's department of African American and African diaspora studies. She blends modern dance with influences from the African diaspora, including Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin styles. She opened her dance studio in 2022 to expose the community to the diversity of dance and music.
"My narrations are from the perspectives of the African diaspora. I like to usually tell stories about immigration. I'm an immigrant myself from Puerto Rico. My family came in the '50s, so I really like those stories."
Seda Negra/Black Silk Dance Company is one of Rosa's dance groups within the dance studio. The dancers tell political, social and cultural narratives. Dancer Amelia Smith says she likes Rosa Santiago's style, and how she includes her students in the creative process.
"What's really interesting about what Professor Rosa is able to do is to bring together people with different experiences in life and different experiences in dance. She's able to bring us all together, foster a community, and to get us all moving in a way that you wouldn't think would be possible," Smith said.
Rosa Santiago says its important for dancers to branch out and learn more than one dance genre. She says travelling and learning about culture through dance is life-changing. "It makes you appreciate dance more, but it really opens up your mind, it gives you more of a world-view and a perspective that if you were only in one genre, then you'd only know that."