Luis Valverde
Choreographer Luis Valverde is also a musician, dancer and researcher of Andean Art. Member of a family of artists, he began his career in Lima in 1991. He has been Director of the legendary Conjunto de Zampoñas (panpipe ensemble) of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima where he studied and worked for several years, investigating peruvian folklore as well as visiting remote towns and villages in the Andes, learning different styles of traditional dance and music. He also has been member of the celebrated ensemble Brisas del Titicaca, the Center for Peruvian Music Reasearch (CIDEMP) and the Center of Folkore of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (CUF).
In 2000 he moved to San Francisco and began an intense activity in the Bay Area which included many performances in diverse venues as well as sharing the stage with Bay Area Artists such as Eddy Navia, Sukay and Pachamama, Jaranon y Bochinche, Nayo Ulloa, Lalo Izquierdo, etc. Valverde also founded the Peruvian Dance Company, and has performed and presented choreographic works for The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and its educational program People Like Me (with Sukay). In 2005 he participated of The Regional Dance Development Initiative (Dance Lab) part of the NEFA National Dance Project and collaborated as panelist for the 2006 Dance/USA National Round Table in Portland. He performed with some of the best choreographers and companies of the Bay Area for the American College Dance Festival at SFSU (Destination-2007).
Member of the International Dance Council (CID-UNESCO), Valverde’s work is permanently intended to bring the extraordinary variety of the Peruvian Dance (easily more than 5000 different dances from more the 100 ethnic groups along the Andes, the Amazonia and the coastal region of Peru) to the American audiences with the special emphasis on the staging, adaptation and performance of both traditional Andean and Afro-Peruvian Dance. Currently he is working on the publication of his book “Tusuy, The Universe of the Andean Dance” (2005).
