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. Russell Rodriguez as the workshop presenter on “Regional Music & Dance”.

Russell Rodríguez
Assistant Professor in Music, UC Santa Cruz
Ph.D. Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz
M.A.  Latin American Studies, Stanford University
B.S.   Anthropology, Santa Clara University

 Russell is an accomplished musician and dancer specializing in performance styles of huasteca, jarocho, mariachi, and other traditional music forms of Mexico. Russell started dancing folklorico as a child with Los Mestizos and later, with Los Lupeños. By the age of 10 he began playing traditional forms of Mexican music apprenticing and performing with some of the finest traditional musicians on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. He has acquired a deep and intimate knowledge of Mexican cultural practices and has established a transnational professional network with internationally acclaimed master dance teachers, musicians, and scholars both in Mexico and the United States.

He has performed at various folk festivals throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, instructed at Mariachi festivals throughout the US Southwest, and worked in San José and Los Angeles, CA; Austin, TX; Washington, DC; Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico; and San Juan, Puerto Rico as a professional musician performing in all types of venues.  Russell is also composer, contributing to various recording projects, theatrical scores and film scores.  In 2005, he co-produced the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings CD compilation Rolas de Aztlán: Songs of the Chicano Movement.  In 2010, he completed work as the assistant producer and musical director for the documentary La Danza Escenica: El Sello de Rafael Zamarripa, for which he coordinated musicians, composed, arranged, and recorded a variety of musical selections as part of the film’s soundscape. He is currently working on his manuscript, Mariachi: Performing the Soundscape of Greater México

In addition to teaching at UCSC, Russell continues to play music professionally with Mariachi Mundial de Mexico and Los Hijos de José, grounding himself in vibrant transnational music scenes with Chicana/o and Mexicano musicians on both sides of the US-Mexican border.   

---

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.