Pathways/Caminos Program

Director’s Notes, Iris Rosa Santiago

I am a Professor Emerita in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University and former director of the Indiana University African American Dance Company (1974–2017). I founded Iris Rosa Dance Studio and Seda Negra/Black Silk Dance Company in Indianapolis in 2022. My dance background is in contemporary modern dance, jazz, and various dance traditions from Africa, Caribbean, and South America.  My specializations include teaching dance techniques, history, and choreography from the perspective of the African American and African Diaspora.  My creative work bridges contemporary modern dance, jazz, and African Diaspora dance forms and styles to create new artistic works that speak to cultural, historical, political, and social issues.

 “Pathways/Caminos” is a five-part choreographic piece that centers Elegua, an Orisha of Ifa, an African spiritual system of the Yoruba people that was syncretized in the New Word with the Catholic religion during the slave trade. My work will center on what happens when people reach the crossroads and will illustrate symbolically what happens when we go down one chosen road as opposed to another.  The piece aims to engage audiences in relatable stories about navigating different pathways in life.  Do we walk alone and select our path?  Do we follow others in the path, or do others follow an individual?  There will be a mixture of contemporary modern and jazz dance expression and several movements inspired from the traditional dance expression of the Orisha Elegua, as well as using the garabato as a symbol in modern times. 

Orishas are spirits/saints that play an important role in the African Diaspora, in Caribbean and Latin American countries, and is a spiritual system that is tied to nature.  In this pantheon of saints, Elegua is the Orisha of the crossroads, of chance and uncertainty, a trickster and lurks in doorways and gateways.  There is specific music, colors, and tools that describe each Orisha’s personality and designated job.  The tool that Elegua utilizes is called a garabato, which is a hooked stick that is used in the dance to symbolize the spreading of the bush to open roads.  There will be repeated patterns, connections, re-connections to illustrate what does it mean to cross paths with others or by oneself.  My questions of crossroads also focus on the individual and collective. 

As an Afro Latina/Puerto Rican woman, I create works to which audience members can relate. I think it is imperative to bring new audiences to view creative dance expressions to see themselves represented in the story. I chose the title “Pathways/Caminos” which is partly in Spanish to speak to my heritage and many others in the Latino community.  In addition, it is important to be inclusive of the city’s Black and Brown population to encourage dialogues about their own lived experiences, which can be achieved through artistic mediums such as the dance discipline. This causes me to continue to be innovative to produce works that speak to human nature, as well as the historical, cultural, political, social, and racial perspectives that we encounter daily. 

The concept of my new work focuses on Elegua, an Orisha of Ifa, an African spiritual system of the Yoruba people that was syncretized in the New Word with the Catholic religion during the slave trade. Orishas are spirits/saints that play an important role in the African Diaspora, in Caribbean and Latin American countries, and is a spiritual system that is tied to nature.  In this pantheon of saints, Elegua is the Orisha of the crossroads, of chance and uncertainty, a trickster and lurks in doorways and gateways.  There is specific music, colors, and tools that describe each Orisha’s personality and designated job.  The tool that Elegua utilizes is called a garabato, which is a hooked stick that is used in the dance to symbolize the spreading of the bush to open roads.  My work will center on what happens when people reach the crossroads and will illustrate symbolically what happens when we go down one chosen road as opposed to another.  There will be a mixture of contemporary modern and jazz dance expression and several movements inspired from the traditional dance expression of the Orisha Elegua, as well as using the garabato as a symbol in modern times.  There will be repeated patterns, connections, re-connections to illustrate what does it mean to cross paths with others or by oneself.  My questions of crossroads also focus on the individual and collective.  Do we walk alone and select our path?  Do we follow others in the path, or do others follow an individual?