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North America / USA / Boston

Burju Pérez. From Dance to the Fashion Industry

Turkey is considered one of the countries with the most successful traders in the world and with a big musical influence of the Islamic and Western culture, well, from this country come the wonderful professional salsa dancer Burju Pérez, an entrepreneur who fused the tempo with the comfort and fashion of footwear.

Born in Turkey but arrived from 2 years old to Boston, Massachusetts. From very young, Burju began in the world of rhythmic gymnastics and dance. “My parents say I danced before I walked, or at least I started them both at the same time. I always had a wiggle and a bop”, said Burju for an American media.

Over the years, she learned other rhythms such as: Hip hop, Jazz and classical. Once at the university, she really dabbled in Latin dance, there a dance group was formed and she met her current husband Víctor, whose roots from Puerto Rico and who by that time was already an expert in Salsa dancing.

Once associated both personally and professionally, Burju and Víctor embarked on their way to conquer the most important congresses and festivals in the country as qualified Salsa dancers, starting with the nation’s largest annual convention, LA SALSA FEST, which for that time was only made in two cities of the world: one in San Juan (Puerto Rico – original headquarters) and the other in Los Angeles, (US).

Russia, China, Japan, Turkey, Lithuania, Germany and all Western Europe were also witnesses to the rage of the audience that generated this duo on the dance floor, who stepped on the best stages, generating great respect in the salsa community for being a couple of high competitive range.

Burju during the decade of the 90s began to add her identity to the attire, painting his shoes and creating her own style. By 2003, this regular salsa girl from the stages of Boston and New York had the opportunity to belong to Juan Matos’ Fogarate Dance Project, which was held every weekend in New York. For the same period, Matos came up with another project, this time in Italy and Turkey and for which he had no partner dance so Burju was the ideal candidate to make this tour with him for a month, working full time.

Burju Shoes

Once in Milan, this choreographer and professional dancer began to create her own project, an idea that would satisfy the needs of the dancers, simply a hybrid between dance and fashion, was the creation of Burju Shoes. In Milan, where I was based for the project, there is this very high fashion and lots of people not wearing dance shoes when they dance.

I was like, “Oh, I’m not trying to be left out.” So when I was social dancing I was rocking these hot fashion shoes I bought there, but every night I was nearly crying because I was in so much pain. That’s when I was like, OH MAN! I want to combine fashion with comfort for dance shoes. She explained in an interview.

Burju Shoes (created in December 2010) are the perfect combination between the avant-garden design, contrast of colors, versatility and comfort, made to highlight the distinctive beauty in each dress and coziness when dancing.

Burju decided to create this company in his home, Boston, a very welcoming place where the scenes and the Latino community has grown exponentially.

When I first started my business, I asked a lot of ladies that were well known (in the dance and salsa world) to help me with a collective push with the brand. These girls not only endorsed it, but became part of the brand and helped with the designs. I even named shoes after them!, said she. I had my own following, but it was so wonderful to have all these girls supporting me and spreading the word.

When I felt weak, I had people to lean on who were not just friends but collaborators in the scene… I’m so grateful for the love and support here. She added. The Burju Shoes business was the change in the footwear industry’s perception for the ladies. The belief for years that the beauty of the shoe was synonymous with pain and tiredness of the feet was in the past.

Burju Shoes offer you elegant shoes that you can use to do your dailies and go to work, they are also perfect for a dinner, cocktail and especially for a night of total fun and a lot of Latin dance.

Burju also cared about brides, and created a wide selection for them for that special day.

Burju thanks to his experience as a professional dancer with 14 years of career, travel and in addition to her creative intuition, she has created great innovative designs in each shoe, which are flexible for the comfort of the user and functional for each occasion.

The construction of each pair of shoes is derived from custom made patterns, high-end manufacturing and high quality materials: satins, leathers, sparkle, faux animal prints and other synthetic or man-made materials.

For the outer soles, the options of suede (more traditional for dance shoes) to the street sole which is great for indoor and outdoor use. I think people appreciate that we put a higher standard on presentation… At the end of the day, selling is not my main mission. But I will educate you and help you find what’s right for you, and help you feel good about yourself. I think this draws people in, said

Even though I don’t dance as much as I used to (since I got pregnant four years ago), and went the fashion and entrepreneur route, I’m still connected to this dance scene through my work and like giving back to the community… I want to show people that arts and business can function together. Burju Perez

North America / USA / New York

En el nombre de Salomé is a playwriting written by Marco Antonio Rodríguez and directed by José Zayas based on the fiction novel In the name of Salomé by Julia Álvarez, a history that presents the life of the patriotic poet and Dominican political activist, Salomé Ureña and her youngest daughter, Camila Salomé Henríquez Ureña. Two ladies that extolled the rights of women in XIX and XX centuries.

Salomé Ureña Díaz was a feminist poet during the most important years of Independence of the Dominican Republic, which became independent from Haiti and then returned to be the Colony of Spain for a time for their protection, hence the famous poem by Ureña “A la Patria” ” Salomé also founded the first university for women in the Caribbean country with the help of her husband, Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, who years later was president of that nation.

By the other hand, Camila Henriquez Ureña was the youngest of her intellectual children, she was a respected educator of Spanish in the United States, lecturer in Latin America, co-founder of one of the main cultural feminist associations in Cuba, obtained a PhD in that Afro Caribbean country, participated in the restructuring of University of the Havana and ended up teaching in her homeland..

This fascinating novel published in 2000, captivated the attention of the director José Zayas, who decided together with the executive director of the Repertorio Español (Theater Company in Spanish famous in New York) to put it on stage.

Both decided that Marco Antonio Rodríguez, a New Yorker with Dominican roots, was the ideal playwright for this adaptation since all his masterpieces have been of total pleasure to the audience. “I was not familiar with Salome; she was a great poet. I knew about her poetry, but I was not very informed about her, and in reality that turned out to be something very positive. It allowed me to undertake the work not as if I were writing about an icon, but in order to find her humanity”, said Rodriguez for an American media.

This writer, producer, actor and director of Latin origin modernized the dramatic play venturing elements of humor as the creation of the character “Sylvestre”, who is a naive man, which is not accepted neither in Haiti nor in the Dominican Republic, so in the scenes of conversation with “Camila” speaks in a colloquial regionalist language, which produces in the audience, acceptance, identification and laughter. Rodriguez explains that his main objective in carrying out this work was to represent the Latino in other facets and not as usual (linked to drug trafficking or other problems), he wanted to change the stereotype of Latin in dramaturgies and films.

“I’m sure they are successful … but we have other stories to share, another psychology to explore, and other issues with which our communities identify.”

Zaya and Marcos made a perfect duet for the creative realization of En Nombre de Salomé. Together, they analyzed every detail of the scenes and characters, recreated a part of the Dominican culture and highlighted the Caribbean artistic talent that according to Zaya is still scarce in the theater.

For the author Julia Álvarez, poet, novelist, and American essayist of Dominican descent, it was a pleasant impression to see the dramaturgy in the Repertorio Español. “It is so rewarding when an artist sees that her play has inspired another artist and that through that artist the word spreads and we reach more and more people … It is a way to spread the stories that are important to our history and culture … Especially at times like this, when so many in the Latino community feel harassed, unwanted and undervalued”. This playwriting, the last October, was awarded with four HOLA (Hispanic Organization of Latino Actors) Awards, including: Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy and Outstanding Production of the Year.

En el Nombre de Salomé Next performances:

• Friday, December 1st at 8pm Cost: $17 – $72
• Tuesday, December 12th at 11am Cost: $30 Venue: Repertorio Español

Location: 138 East 27th Street, New York, NY 10016

To get more information about EN EL NOMBRE DE SALOMÉ, please visit their website http://www.marcoantoniorodriguez.com/

 

To the motherland

 

Tear, my homeland, the mantle that vilely, on your shoulders put the barbaric cruelty; already raises the bloody forehead from the dust, and sings the holy hymn of union and freedom.

Get up to gird yourself with the purple of glory, oh you, the world’s favorite of Columbus! Your sovereign rank dispute history, demand your laurel and your coat of arms from fame.

And ask your children, called to holy union, to carve you a grandiose pedestal of virtues, to affirm forever the powerful plant, showing the nations your immortal title.

And let, beloved country, let my hymns of pleasure mix with yours in the sonorous wind; Allow me to celebrate your joy and your contentment, as I regretted with you your bitter suffering.

I saw your own children yoking you to the iron yoke, making you an instrument of their cruel revenge; for a scepter they put the executioner’s ax for you, and funereal cypresses formed your canopy.

And then you looked at them outlaws, wandering, wandering tearful foreign beaches; and sad and downcast dying eyes I saw you return to heaven tired of crying.

You know how many times with your unfortunate pain I wept for your misfortune, I wept for your destruction, just as the daughters of Zion once wept for the ruin and havoc of its walls.

And you know that, like them, I hung from your palm groves the harp with which I wanted to sing your facts, because when I watched your blood flow relentlessly to the seas I couldn’t even prelude a chord sound.

But today that it seems you are reborn to another life, with holy rejoicing I take down my lute, to tell the world, if it judged you defeated, that, phoenix, you resurrect with new youth;

that you already hold the standard as the scepter of the free and your mother-of-pearl and sapphire sky as your canopy, and you go with progress, which flies to illuminate you, in pursuit of the bright future that flatters you;

that now your new children embrace each other like brothers, and swear to restore your dignity to your anguish, and among them there are neither serfs nor tyrants, and peace and good give us union and freedom.

O idolized country! Girded with high glory, prepare to be queen of the world of Columbus: your sovereign rank already guards history, fame presents you with your laurel and your coat of arms.

Salome Urena (1874)