Alfonso Cervera
SF FACTS/SUMMER AUG. 2023
RP : Retinitis pigmentosa, is a rare, inherited degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment, often beginning in early childhood. Cervera's work places his family at the forefront as he archives and revisits shared moments with Maria Casanova and Denise Cervera's lived experiences. Through movement-based explorations, Cervera attempts to acknowledge past events and bring awareness to his family's disability.
Photo: Robbie Sweeny
Meet Alfonso Cervera
Where to begin...Well, my name is Alfonso Abraham Cervera Casanova Jr. but I prefer to be called Fonzy.
I identify as a Queer, Mexican American, first-generation, activist, curator, and educator. These are the platforms in which I choose to claim and share my embodied experience as a professor and artist with newer generations. Currently, I live between my newfound home of Columbus Ohio, and Los Angeles, CA where I continue to make collaborative experimental dance works with collaborators such as Primera Generación Dance Collective and other artists around the globe.
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My research and specialization as an independent artist focus on the conversation between Ballet Folklorico and Afro-LatinX social dances in a contemporary auto-biographical embodied experience that I call Poc-Chuc. The practice of Poc-Chuc intentionally works to offer new choreographic methods, and techniques through perspectives in theory and physical embodiment. Choreographically and professionally as an educator, I've been provided opportunities to practice my technique at the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign, Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle), University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Cal State San Marcos (San Diego), Riverside Community College (CA), Mt. San Jacinto Community College (CA), and now The Ohio State University.
My collaborative and independent works have been presented at the CDC Fest in Orlando Florida, Jello Queer Experiment in Chicago, IL, SF Facts in San Francisco, Odyssey Theater Space in Santa Monica - CA, Judson Church Movement Research (New York City), Festival of Latin Contemporary Choreographers (San Francisco), Red Cat (Los Angeles), Pieter Performance Space (Santa Monica, CA), Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), Bushwick Studios (New York), and Lux Boreal’s 4x4 in Tijuana Mexico to name a few. My work has also been presented at numerous festivals, universities, and non-traditional spaces. Currently, I'm inspired and intrigued by questioning the relationship between process, performance, Improvisation, Mexican Queerness, and Ballet Folklorico. I believe in creating dances that provide voice, space, and safety for BIPOC and Queer community members.