The intersection of human rights and artistic expression were explored by the co-director of a Colombian dance school on Tuesday.



Alvaro Restrepo is the co-director of El Colegio del Cuerpo de Cartagena and one of Colombia's contemporary dance pioneers and choreographers. He was invited to participate in a residency at UT from Feb. 4 through 11.

Translated as "The College of the Body," the school was co-founded by Restrepo and his colleague Marie-France Delieuvin, director at the National Center for Modern Dance in Angers, France. Together they have gathered the resources and support to open a contemporary dance school in Cartagena. The Colombian city has an estimated 1 million inhabitants, two-thirds of which live below the poverty line.



"Going to our school allows students to leave their ghettos and impoverished lives and come to a beautiful and historical area of the city," Restrepo said.



When the program began in 1997, Restrepo and Delieuvin proposed their ideas to the local school principal who allowed them to take all of the school's sixth grade students for a month of study at El Colegio del Cuerpo. The trial run was well accepted and many of the students, who reportedly enjoyed the experience, hoped to be accepted into the school's formal dance program.



"The students said that they liked our program for three reasons: They were well treated, they liked the idea of becoming something, and they wanted to travel," Restrepo said.



The program, which has now performed in more than 30 countries, proved to be more popular than its founders expected. Restrepo said that they expected to have about 60 to 65 applicants but more than 450 students responded to the school's program.



In the end, the school administrators chose 30 of what they felt were the most dedicated applicants. Restrepo feels that this program allows the young and impoverished students to discover a new reality for themselves.

British-based writer Francois Matarasso visited El Colegio del Cuerpo and wrote about its accomplishments in an article published in 2007.



"The school tries to create a role for art in healing a society ridden by war and organized crime," Matarasso wrote.

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