Contemporary Dance Festival in Quito

From November 8 to November 12 in the "Nacional Sucre" and "Variedades Ernesto Albán" theaters, the International Contemporary Dance festival "Reencuentro con la Danza" is taking place in our city. The entry is 1 USD .

In the "Desde el Teatro" magazine, edited by the "National Sucre´s Theater Foundation", says that the festival will be executed with several reflections like liberty, lightness, opening, the sense of flying and in general the breaking of authoritarianism included in the process of creating art and in this particular case contemporary dance: a form of expression which is developed regardless sex, race and believes.

This year´s participants includes dance delegations from: Chile, Brasil, Venezuela, México and Ecuador.

This is the calendar:

• “Sujetaltac”

Compañía Movimiento (Chile)

November 8 • 20h30

Teatro Variedades Ernesto Albán

• “El cuerpo que escribe”

Tribute to the ecuadorian writer Jorge Enrique Adoum

• “Danza de viejitos” “La sombra en el espejo”

• “Kviera-danza urbana y Rosa Amelia Poveda (Ecuador/Alemania)

November 9 • 20h30

Teatro Variedades Ernesto Albán

• “Tenía que ser solamente contigo”Compañía de danza Quasar (Brasil)

November 10 • 20h30

Teatro Nacional Sucre

• “De Hadas, Duendes, Brujas y otras Criaturas disfrazadas en la ciudad” Ruby Tagle Wilinham (México)

November 11 • 20h30

Teatro Variedades Ernesto Albán

• “Shakti en Ascensión o Rainbow Revisited”Aktion Kolectiva; Laboratorio permanente de investigación de

Danza Contemporánea Teatro (Venezuela)

November 12 • 20h30

Teatro Variedades Ernesto Albán

"Vivamos las Fiestas en paz"

"Vivamos las fiestas en paz" wich in english means "lets live the parties in peace", its an initiative from the "Liceo International school" and the "Student´s Counsel network" to stop accidents related to alcohol abuse during the celebration of Quito´s foundation.

To Marco Dávila, director and founder of the project, the main strategy is to work closely with young people. The organization of activities to inform about the dangers of consuming alcohol like walks, dances, and music festivals, are part of the initiative.

These are the six main distinctive followed by the campaign:

THE BIG ACT:

It´s a walk arranged for all the schools involved in the campaign. November 21 it´s the date chosen to present the initiative in "Plaza de San Frcnsico" (downtown Quito). The school with more participants during the walk will receive USD 3000.

THE BRACELETS

5000 articles to promote the message of the campaign: stop alcohol abuse during december celebrations.

ADVERTISING

Several TV commercials are being released to aware young people about the dangers of drunk driving.

OTHER PROGRAMS

Traditional games like "cuarenta" and "carritos de madera" among other cultural activities like a band fight are being arranged.

DESIGNATED DRIVER

This is an initiative of the police department: a responsible young person will be designated to drive drunk people home during the holidays.

CONTROL OF "LAS CHIVAS"

The use of alcohol is forbidden in these vehicles.

In the year 2000 there were an estimate of 70 deceases and 500 injured people during Quito´s celebrations. In 2009, thanks to the campaign, this number went low to 22 deceases and 115 injured; according to the observatory of city security.

Fabulosos Cadillacs y Calle 13 in Quito´s hollydays.

Miguel Mora, secretary of culture, announced to the city councils an extend list of concerts and artistic presentations that are being prepared to celebrate the foundation of Quito, The line up will be formally presented in the next days, and the events will be taking place in the city at the end of november

According to the city council Fabricio Villamar, president of the Education and Culture Comission, all the shows are going to be free, but in order to get the tickets people must donate a book to a library in Quitumbe.

Performers like Carlos Vives, Vicentico y Fabulosos Cadillacs, Calle 13, Lito Vitale, Juan Carlos Baglietto, Willie Colón y Puerto Candelaria, among others, have been confirm. The shows are going to take place in Quitumbe between December 3 and December 6.

There are also going to be presentations of the "Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional", "Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil" and the "Ballet Ecuatoriano de Cámara".

The council Villamar informed that this year´s budget to celebrate Quito´s foundation is estimated of a million dollars.

Music festivals like Quitofest, Quitu Raymi y el Rockmiñawi are also in the municipally´s agenda.

Tauromachy in Quito

The mayor of Quito, Augusto Barrera, received the past october a petition from diverse social institutions and organizations to end bullfighting in the city. The petition is going to be part of a popular consultation process in which the residents will be the ones who decide the future of this practice. Barrera committed to make a decision about the topic in a month time. This is an extremely polemic matter in Quito,a lot of political, social and economic interests are involved; thats why Barrera is very precocious every time he is asked about it. Animal right activists from all over the country make manifestations this time of year against this practice, but the thing is that a lot of people also enjoy it and consider it a form of art; thats why a concession between people who support bullfighting and people who reject it, is not a possibility. Almost a month have passed since the release of the petition and no decision have been made. The town council is the institution in charge of the matter, some delegates from different social institutions like Fundación Regional de Asesoría en Derechos Humanos INREDH, Organización Político Cultural DiablUma, AnimaNaturalis, Antitaurinos Unidos del Ecuador, Cuidado con el CUCO y la fundación PAE, among others, are preparing a meeting to discuss this matter more seriously before Quito´s hollydays. We wonder how everything is going to turn out.