Move to the beat of Afro-Dominican dance at the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC), 805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4. The program will feature Areytos Performance Works, a Bronx-based dance theater company. The event is free and open to the public.

The program will include a performance, artist talk back, and a participatory introduction to Afro-Dominican dance with Areytos Performance Works co-founder and artistic director Sita Frederick; master traditional dancer-artisan Genaro Ozuna; dancer Alethea Pace; and poetry by award winning author, Nelly Rosario. Areytos was originally scheduled to perform in February as part of CFAC’s Caribbean Cinematic Festival, but Hurricane Sandy prevented the group from traveling to Syracuse.

Founded in 2003, Areytos Performance Works creates innovative contemporary dance-theatre rooted in Caribbean traditions and principles of social justice. The troupe’s original,  multifaceted productions are informed by untold histories and current community events. 

Areytos Performance Works began in the Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem and Washington Heights as a multi-disciplinary arts organization dedicated to creating community-based projects that privilege Africanist aesthetics, historical research and artistic risk-taking in the Caribbean community. The troupe works at the crossroads of performance art, African-Caribbean dances, contemporary modern dance, collaboration and stage environments. 

CFAC is a unit of the Department of African American Studies in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers.

The Areytos Performance Works event is co-sponsored by the Central New York Community Foundation, CNY Latino, YMCA Downtown Writers Center, the Spanish Action League of Onondaga County, the Gifford Foundation and various Syracuse University departments and organizations, including the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Caribbean Students Association, Arts Engage, La Casita Cultural Center, Student African American Society, University College, the Department of Sociology, LGBT Resource Center, and the Writing Program.

About Sita Frederick

Frederick is a choreographer, performer, arts administrator and teacher based in New York City. After graduating from Swarthmore College, Frederick performed with Bessie-winning choreographers Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women and Merian Soto, co-founder of Pepatián. Frederick’s work reinterprets Afro-Cuban, Salsa and modern. Her most recent dance series explores the convergence of Gaga and Guloya, two African based Dominican traditions and the politics of black identity in the Dominican Diaspora.

Frederick’s work has been supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Bronx Action Lab, Puffin Foundation, Aaron Davis Hall’s Fund for New Work, Harlem Dance Foundation, and Swarthmore College. Her work has been presented by the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center/Kumble Theater, Aaron Davis Hall/Harlem Stages, Pregones Theater, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Pepatian@Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Congress on Research in Dance, University of Texas at Austin, Cornell University, and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, among others.

Frederick holds a Master of Fine Arts in New Media Art and Performance from Long Island University, Brooklyn.