The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Programs in Theater and Music Theater at Princeton University present La Gran Cumbia Espectacular!, a theatrical performance conceived by Princeton senior Kaelani Burja celebrating cumbia, a rhythm/dance/music genre with African and Indigenous roots that originated along Colombia’s Río Magdalena, featuring choreography by guest artist Andrea Guajardo. Performances, which are free and open to the public, are April 21, 22, 27 and 28 at 8:00 p.m. in the Wallace Theater at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. No tickets are required. The Wallace Theater is an accessible venue and has an assistive listening system. The April 21 performance will be open captioned. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu.
Some of the cast of La Gran Cumbia Espectacular!Photo Credit: Abe Jacobs
Cumbia has come to serve as a means of home-making through its ability to traverse music, memory, and migration across many Latin American countries and parts of the United States. This show celebrates cumbia and community, journeying through three styles of cumbia: cumbia folklórica colombiana (traditional Colombian folk dance), cumbia wepa, (a style that originated in Monterrey, México) and cumbia tejana (a social dance that originated in Texas). Audience members who are interested will have the opportunity to learn cumbia dance moves during the show; those planning to join in the performance are encouraged to dress ready to move and dance. The performed vignettes will combine cumbia with elements such as roller skating, a quinceañera, zumba, horror, drag, pop, zombies, and a community block party.
Burja’s conception of the piece draws from her own cultural background and that of the cast members who participated in devising the vignettes in collaboration with professional choreographer Andrea Guajardo. She applauds the cast, who played a significant role in devising the show, in bringing their different talents, many of which fall outside traditional theater performance, to the project and how they connected those skills into the cumbia tradition. She notes the development process, with the cast building the production together by telling their own story within the history of cumbia, was a valuable community experience. Burja received funding through the Lewis Center’s Alex Adam ’07 Award last summer to research, observe, and participate in the production and development processes of various new plays and to observe the rehearsal process of new Latiné works and works that center on previously excluded peoples in order to develop rehearsal strategies to use in this production.
Burja, who is from Guam and Bakersfield, California, where the cumbia tradition is popular, is majoring in anthropology and pursuing certificates (similar to a minor) in theater, music theater, Latino studies, and Latin American studies. She is a community ambassador for Princeton’s Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity, a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, and a Scholars Institute Fellow, a program that supports first-generation and low-income students. Burja has served as dramaturg for Princeton University Players and on the student theater group’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Board. At the Lewis Center, she has performed in a number of productions including Hotel on Fremont, Little Shows about Death (a virtual project led by guest artist Sam Pinkleton during COVID), All her Power: The 50th Anniversary of Undergraduate Coeducation Theater Project, Fuenteovejuna, and in a reconstruction of María Irene Fornés’ Evelyn Brown: A Diary. She also stage managed the virtual production Game of Inheritance and served as assistant director and dramaturg for the original musical Adamandi. In addition, Burja worked with guest artist Daniel Alexander Jones’ on his recent residencies at McCarter Theatre and the Lewis Center. Outside of Princeton she is the editorial assistant for Fornés in Context and has assistant directed and served as dramaturg at professional theaters including Boundless Theatre Company, Clubbed Thumb, Chelsea Factory, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Sol Project. After graduation, she is writing and performing a play in a yearlong project funded through a Martin A. Dale ’53 Fellowship.
In addition to Burja, the performing ensemble, many of whom are first-generation, low-income, or transfer students, includes Miel Escamilla, Jordan Hines, Orion Lopez-Ramirez, Lane Marsh, Tammy Yamile Leon Molina, Alison Parish, Raquel Ramirez, River Reynolds, Wasif Sami, Natalia Solano, and Gabriel Samcam Vargas.
Student members of the production team are Hannah Faughnan as music director, Zhudi Pan as costume designer, Austria Merritt and Silvana Nasim as lighting designers, Ishea Johnson as sound designer, Ash Jackson as stage manager with Kira Fitzgerald and Aneekah Uddin as assistant stage managers mentored by Anna Allport, and Emily Garcia and John Venegas Juarez as contributing playwrights. Elena Araoz, Tess James and Vivia Font are faculty advisors on the project.
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about this event, the Programs in Theater and Music Theater, and the over 100 performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, and lectures presented each year at the Lewis Center, most of them free.
