presents

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Special thanks to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for their continuing support of the John Anson Ford Theatres, a County Regional Park operated by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

(A project of Multiethnic Peace and Reconstruction Fund)

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Ballet Folklórico Panameño, was the first companyto present choreographic shows keeping the mostprofound roots and tradition of our folklore.

Since 1969, the Ballet has performed in many citiesof South America and North America. In Europe theBallet has performed at the Expo Fair 2000 inHanover, Germany; in 1992 Expo Seville in Spain,and a tour in Italy. The Ballet has performed forhigh-level dignataries, and conventions and severaltimes in Disney World, Orlando, they participated atthe Tenth Anniversary of Disney World, in EpcotCenter. In South America, at the Festival of Viña delMar, in Chile. The Ballet has been broadcasted ontelevision networks such as: Venevision, Univision,Telemundo, and also on European TV shows.

At a national level, they promote tourism with TheInstituto Panameño de Turismo, (IPAT-PanamanianTourism Bureau). The Ballet has performed forHigh-level dignitaries, conventions and differentactivities.

In 1999, the Ballet received the Award as the BestFolkloric Group of Panama on the NationalBroadcast Program "Aires de Mi Tierra". InDecember 31, 1999, they performed during theCeremony of the Transfer of the Panama Canal.Also performed at the special affair given by thePanamanian government to Presidents during theTenth Iberoamerican Summit.

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Director & Choreographer

The founder, choreographer, and dancer, has trainedthousands of students to learn the different rhythmsof the Panamanian Folkloric dance. She was born inPanama City and studied in Costa Rica andColombia. This constant innovator mastered herknowledge in chorographical dances at thePanamerican Academy in Los Angeles, California.

Elisa Ramos de Céspedes founded the BalletFolklórico Panameño in October 17, 1969, a productof her love and passion for the Panamanian musicand folkloric tradition. This Panamanian womanknew since her childhood that art was to be her lifework. She has received many decorations andawards for her brilliant and restless contributions tothe Folklore of Panama in her hometown andabroad.

In 1998, Raul Peimbert, reporter and CBS channelanchor of the program “América Habla”, a programdedicated to interviewing Latino American person-alities; featured Elisa de Céspedes, to showcase heroutstanding work with the Ballet FolklóricoPanameño.

Artistic Director

Industrial Engineer, Luis began his first dancingsteps with the Ballet Folklórico Panameño in 1975,when he was studying folklore in High school underdirection of Prof. Elisa de Céspedes.

With the Ballet Folkórico Panameño, he participatedin numerous folkloric events in different cities inCentral, North and South America, and also inEuropean cities. In 1989, Prof. Céspedes, nominat-ed him as the Artistic Director of the FolkloricBallet. Together with Prof. Céspedes, they designand create the choreography of every dance. Alsothey select and train every dancer.

Since 1990 until the present, he has assisted in thecoordination of numerous successful events.Among them are: “Miss Panama Pageants”, theshow of Sábado Sensacional from Venezuela, theLatin Model Pageant International in 1989, thePanamanian's Gastronomic Festival in Nicaragua,‘92 Expo Seville in Spain, the Silver Anniversary ofthe Ballet Folklórico Panameño, and several touristpromotions sponsored by the Panamanian TourismBureau.

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Performers

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fÉÄÉ WtÇvxÜáArq. Rosario CardenasLic. Gisela ArosemenaMarilyn BustamanteDra. Fabiola Gamboa

Dra. Silia AlegríaLic. Argelis Jaramillo

Lic. Yesenia Teira

Carlos RamseyLic. Tomas Arias

Prof. Osvaldo EscuderoGeorge BallesterosAlexis González

Lic. Luis J. RodríguezLic. Felix Julio

Henry SotoLic. Marcos Rodríguez

Arq. Yoira BarboniMarleni Bustamante

Gianella AmeglioOfelina CastilloSu Lyn ChungKaren CortesKarin De BucLoris De León

Yamilis DegraciaDalvis HerreraYamilka Arjona

Cristi López

Dra.Rebeca MelamedMayra López

Ana Cristina MojicaLeslie NietoEvelyn PérezRaizza RiveraJaravi RosalesAna Barranco

Mailyn AparicioIliana De Los Ríos

Dayra SánchezLicda. Zaida Saavedra

Carlos ForeroLic. Lukas GuardiaLuis Carlos Pereira

César FernándezAndrés CarballoGabrie LezcanoDenis Castillo

Mauricio MurgasEnriquez VillalazCristian. Barrera

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Accordion: Lic. Héctor EspinoDrum 1: Lic. Ricaute VillarrealDrum 2: Prof. Victor RuízCaja: Prof. Carlos WilsonChuruca: Prof. Jorge BallesteroGuitar: Prof. Feliciano Mercado

Panama is a melting pot of races and cultures, and inthe same way as the Atlantic and the Pacific bath it,tonight’s repertoire is a series of waves by Panamathroughout time, races and geography.

We invite you to discover PANAMA through therhythm of its music, the precision of its dances, the lux-ury of its costumes, and the elegance of its movements.

African WaveThe Afro-colonials are the descendants of Africanslaves brought by the Spaniards to work in the farms,mines and pearl fisheries as early as the first half ofthe 16th century. In 1509, Diego de Nicosia broughtthe first 20 slaves from Santo Domingo. They werebrought to build ports in the area now called Nombrede Dios. On August 15, 1519, the Old Panama City(Panama Viejo) was founded by Pedro Arias de Avila,who used Black slaves to build most of the majorstructures in the old city which included the famousOld Panama City Tower, King's Bridge, etc. Therewas a group of Black slaves, who rebelled against theSpaniards called Cimarrons, the rebels fled in thebushes to live a free and savage life. The slavesworked hard day and night, and in moment of relax-ation at night, they expressed their feelings throughtheir music and dance, Cumbia, African word thatmeans, “to make noise”.

Zaracunde: Dance with an African backgroundperformed by the slaves, hidden from their patronsand managers. One slave seeks to court his master'sdaughter.

Darienita: dance from the province of Darien.

Tambor Congo is a native dance from the provinceof Colón. The couples dance with very sensual andenergetic movements following the rhythms of thedrums.

The Afro-Antilleans are descendants of English-speaking black immigrants from Caribbean islands(Barbados, Jamaica and French Antilles), whoarrived to Panamá as a consequence of the buildingof a Trans-Isthmian railroad in 1850, the Frenchattempt at digging an Interoceanic canal in 1880, theAmerican construction of the canal in 1904 and thedevelopment in Bocas del Toro of the banana indus-try by the United Fruit Company in the last decadesof the 19th century; and of course, PanamanianCulture got another flavor with their legacy andBanana Boat is inspired on their folklore.

Religious WaveWith the arrival of the Spaniards to the Isthmus, alsotheir religion came with them. The Priests came toteach and convert the native population to theCatholicism. One of the ways they utilized to teachthe principles of Good and Evil was through thevery ancient theater representation, known since1150 in Spain.

Diablitos Sucios (Dirty Devils): This is a danceperformed during Corpus Christi festivities in theregion of Los Santos in which the dancers called“Dirty Devils” show their tap dancing skills followingthe rhythm of the guitar and mejoranera (small guitar).

Countryside WaveAs our beautiful Panama continued to grow andadvance, its people also did it in their ideologies andtraditions, and in Las Tablas, cradle of folklore.Their popular and democratic spirit produced whatwe have now as part of our Traditional dances,which is result of the mixture of drums and rhythmsof African background with the elegance and thecoloring of the Spanish background.

Socavón del Canajagua: Young male peasantsshow their dancing skills to conquer the love of theirfemale.

Vocal Performance

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Gallina: Choreographic arrangement mimickingthe ritual of mating between the rooster and the hen.

Native Indian Wave:Prior to the Conquest of Central America, Mexico,and Peru, great civilizations in the Americas haddeveloped high cultural values. The Isthmus pro-duced civilizations of outstanding achievements, notranking however with the Aztec, Maya or Inca.However, there is evidence that their religious per-spective was of a higher order, as they did not havethe human sacrifices common in Mexico. The follow-ing are dances from two of our present native groups:

Kuna Indian Dance (Dance of the Seashell):Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, ournative Indians have been using the conch to call formeetings and community works. This dance simu-lates the spiral movements of the conch. The maledancers play the Flute (cammu-pruwui) and thefemales play the maracas (na’).

Cumbia Sentimientos del Alma: dance per-formed by Ballet Folklórico Viva Panamá, officialdance company from Viva Panama Organization (Hostof this celebration) and directed by Victor Grimaldo.

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The Folklore and traditions get stronger in thecountryside, building the bases for what we havenow. Ladies wear Montunas, daily costume en thecountryside.

Cumbia Chorrerana: joyful and happy dancefrom the city of La Chorrera.

Atravesao de Tres: This is one of the most excit-ing dances of the Panamanian folklore.

Ladies wear the elegant and luxurious Pollera deGala, used in big festivities such as Carnival andmain festivities in town. The following are dancesfrom the beginning of the 20th century performed atthe high society ballrooms of those times. Femaledancers wear the White Pollera, used in religiousoccasions such as weddings and saint patron's cele-brations.

Ballroom dances were enjoyed at the beginningof the 20th Century such as Polka Dance andBallroom Cumbia.

El Punto: the most romantic, aristocratic and ele-gant of all our folk dances, originated in the ball-rooms of our aristocratic society and it is consideredthe Wedding Dance.

Denesa Poblana: regional dance of the TonosiValley.

Panama “The Green”: honoring the abundanceof forest and green vegetation in our beautiful country.

La Espina: this is a challenge of tap dancingbetween two males trying to conquer the love of awoman.

Viva Panama: A ballroom Cumbia honoring ournational sovereignty, dance full of movements andfeelings.

Atravesao Colectivo: this is another dance inwhich the females can display their national cos-tume, in a variety of choreographic segments.

Carnival in Panama: when thinking ofCarnival, most people will think of Rio de Janeiro inBrazil, or New Orleans in the United States...but didyou know that Panama's carnival is the secondlargest in the world? Celebrated since the early1900's, Panama's Carnival officially begins thefourth day before Ash Wednesday; however, manycelebrations begin earlier. On the actual Carnivaldays, most work comes to a complete stop and themain streets of Panama City are filled with parades,floats, masks, costumes and confetti. The largestcelebrations take place in Panama City and LasTablas (l30 miles west of Panama City, is consideredby many the best place to celebrate Carnival). Theatmosphere is more folkloric and enlivened by anintense, traditional rivalry between "High street" and“Low Street” for the fanciest costumes and mostcreative floats, under the rhythm of the Murga, pop-ular music for the Panamanians).

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TACA: La Flota más Nueva de América

En Grupo TACA hemos cumplido con nuestro compromiso de renovación de flota, enteramente compuesta por nuevos aviones Airbus A-320 y A-319. Con nuevos aviones, le ofrecemos:

• Mayor comodidad al viajar, gracias a cabinas más anchas y motores más silenciosos.

• Más espacio para equipaje.

• Más vuelos sin escala pricipalmente desde nuestros Centros de Conexión en Lima, San José y El Salvador.

• Una mejor operación a tiempo.

En adición al servicio de jets dentro de Centro América, nuestras líneas regionales asociadas, operan aviones ATR-42 y Cessna Grand Caravan.

TACA: The Newest Fleet in the AmericasWe have completed our fleet renewal composed entirely of new Airbus A-320 and A-319.

With new aircraft we can offer you:

• A more comfortable flight experience onboard wider cabins with more efficient, quiet engines.

• More baggage capacity.

• More direct flights mainly out of our Lima, San Jose and El Salvador hubs.

• Enhanced on time performance.

In addition to Intra-Central America jet service, our associated Regional Airlines operate ATR-42's and Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft.

Salvador Gómez Gochéz & Isabel Cárdenas fromSalvadoran American National Association and theirconstant support.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors:Yvonne Burke – Chair, Gerardo Pinedo, EliaCervantes, Nancy Reyes, Glenda Wina, GingerBarnard.

Carmen Paredes & Reyna - Grupo TACA.

Marek Cabrera & Olivia Aleman - La Opinion.

Patricia Sturla Studio - Patricia Sturla, AnaMarshall, Irma Ribbon, and their models.

Marie Tostado -Miss Panamerican International.

Diana Garnand - Visual Purple Graphics.

Thanks to our Ballet Folklórico Viva Panamá fortheir generous sponsorship and support:

Dancers: Vania Araúz, Paula Constable, LauraEchevers, Ingri & Diana Espinoza, Víctor Grimaldo,Javier Hernández, Manuel Jaén, Jairo Laws, JavierRamos, Loira Ramos, Alfonso & Yessica Schessler,Amaris Serracín.

Viva Panama Organization Board of Directors fortheir hard work and energy:

Victor Grimaldo – General DirectorMarlene Sánchez –Administrative & ProtocolDirector, Ben Hernández – Budget & AuditoryDirector, Jorge Crastz – Treasurer & Cultural EventsDirector, Amaris Serracín – SecretaryTatiana Berman – Public Relations DirectorJairo Laws – Community Relations DirectorPedro Mojica – SocioEconomical DevelopmentDirector Ana Marshall – Fund Raising Director

Ford Amphitheatre:

David Pier, Linda Chiavaroli,Susanna Erdos, Sarah Watland,Arthur Trow-bridge, Patrick Brown,Ralph Flores, Chris Diamonds,

Liriola Pittí & Dalel de Sanchez-Panama Tourism Bureau.

S.E. Dominador Kayser Bazán -VicePresident of Panama.

Lic. Fernando Daly - GeneralConsul of Panama.

The fastest way to connect with theAmericas, on time. Copa Airlines' modern

new fleet consists of twelve Boeing 737-700 "Next Generation" airplanes.

Special Thanks to Prof. Elisa de Céspedes, for their wonderful performance, to Horacio Prado for his talent andgood will bringing sis Summer collection "Roots", and of course to our sweet & beautiful Justine Pasek -

Miss Universe 2002 for her support and friendship.