UFS 2018 “Bailando Sin Fronteras” will take place at the University of California, Santa Cruz on February 2, 3 & 4 and is being hosted by Los Mejicas de UC Santa Cruz.  The organizing committee is proud to announce the participation of Dr. Olga Nájera-Ramírez as the workshop presenter on the  “Foundations of Folklórico Dance”.

Olga Nájera-Ramírez
Professor Emerita, Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin
M.A. Latin American Studies, University of Texas, Austin
B.A. History, Latin American Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz

Olga began dancing at UCSC with Grupo Folklorico Los Mejicas. She subsequently spent three years at the Universidad de Guadalajara studying dance and participating in Grupo Folklórico de la Universidad de Guadalajara. She returned to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies at the University of Texas in Austin.

As an anthropologist specializing in folklore, she has concentrated on documenting and critically examining expressive culture forms such as festivals, dance, rodeo and music as practiced by Mexicans living in the United States and Mexico. In particular, she examine the ways in which expressive forms are invested with meaning, transmitted, experienced, and otherwise employed by members and non-members of a community.

Author of La Fiesta de los Tastoanes: Critical Perspectives in a Mexican Festival Performance (1997) she is co-editor of several anthologies, including Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change, (2002), and Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader (2003) and Dancing Across Borders: Danzas y Bailes Mexicanos (2009). She also produced two bilingual documentaries, La Charreada: Rodeo a la Mexicana (1997) and Danza Folklórica Escénica: El Sello Artístico de Rafael Zamarripa (2010).

Registration for UFS 2018 is open to all leaders & administrators (ages 18+) of high-school, college and university folklorico groups throughout the nation.

Info packet: click here.

Online Registration: click here.

#UFS2018UCSC #BailandoSinFronteras

The University Folklorico Summit (UFS), an initiative of Danzantes Unidos, is a three-day leadership and cultural arts conference designed for collegiate folklorico groups. UFS provides a forum for university folklorico group leaders to meet, share their best practices, and strategize for their communities.