FolkCOLOMBIA welcomes its newest member, dancer Katherine Antequera.  Katherine is talented young woman with big dreams and aspirations. Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, Katherine came to the United States to pursue her dreams of teaching and performing Atlantic coastal dance traditions. Ever since Antequera was a small girl, her love of folk and modern dance has taken her many places, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Broadway Dance Center, Carnegie Hall, and the United Palace. 

Katherine has shared her knowledge of dance, giving classes and workshops in cumbia, bullerengue, porro and pasillo. 

One of her proudest moments was when she performed at the Carnaval de Barranquilla with "Cumbion de Oro",one of largest and most important festivals in Colombia. 

Antequera also brings to FolkCOLOMBIA an added dimension: Beauty. Participating in the tradition of Colombian beauty competitions, Katherine is a professional make-up artist, venturing into the world of fashion modeling, an arena where she also seeks to promote Colombian culture. In July of 2014, Katherine was invited to participate in ColombiaModa in Medellin, not only representing FolkCOLOMBIA, and the traditions which she wholeheartedly helps to preserve, but giving young students and new audiences an appreciation of the beauty that inspires Colombian dance. FolkCOLOMBIA Musica y Danza is very pleased to have Katherine the Colombian community cultural initiative and expects great things from this dedicated young artist.

CTMD Director of Touring Artists Kaisha S. Johnson recently had the unique opportunity to travel to Korea to study its cultural traditions, engage with its artists and witness its thriving performing arts scene. At the invitation of the Korean Ministry of Culture through the support of Korean Cultural Services New York, a government institution established to promote Korean culture and aesthetics in New York, Ms. Johnson was invited with the hopes of fostering greater cultural exchange between Korea and the United States. While in Korea she traveled to two major cities (and Gyeongju, an ancient village designated a UNESCO Heritage Site) and participated in two major performing arts conferences, the Asian-Pacific Arts Music Market (APaMM) held in Ulsan, and the Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS).

Some of the various highlights of the trip included a behind-the-scenes tour of The National Gugak Center in Seoul, an institution dedicated to preserving and promoting traditional Korean music and dance; and participating in "Journey to Korean Music," an ancillary program of PAMS that was designed to help give conference participants a thorough overview of traditional Korean music complete with appropriate navigation through historic and cultural contexts.

Akin in size to New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The National Gugak Center houses three theaters, an education center, an administration building, a museum and a building solely for the rehearsal of its four resident companies - a court music orchestra, a folk music group, a dance theater and a contemporary gugak orchestra. Gugak, which literally means "national music" in Korean, seems to be a thriving art form, supported largely by the government but even more enthusiastically supported by everyday Koreans, as witnessed from a full house of passionate concert-goers on one particular evening.

The "Journey to Korean Music" was facilitated by longtime CTMD collaborator, Dr. Ju-Yong Ha, Professor of Ethnomusicology, and included both a lecture and performance series. The lectures helped contextualize the music that was to be heard and the performances, in their most authentic state, were realized in spaces and environments where this music was historically performed in Korea. Some of the traditions showcased included gagok, a traditional Korean vocal form characterized by its slow tempo and simple melody; sanjo, a solo instrumental form accompanied by drumming on the janggu; and sinawi, an instrumental form marked by improvisation derived from shaman music. These forms were transmitted by master musicians, virtuosos, in fact, of Korean traditional music and realized in various historic locations like Namsangol Hanok Village in Seoul, a complex of preserved houses used to give visitors a peek into how the upper class lived centuries before.

With her sights on expanding upon her work with the Korean artistic community in NYC (particularly through the spectacular New York-based Korean Performing Arts Center and its resident ensemble, Sounds of Korea), Kaisha's trip afforded her the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of Korea's artistic heritage and history. Heartfelt appreciation goes to the Korean Ministry of Culture and Korean Culture Services New York for making this cultural tour possible.