JOURNEYING THROUGH EXODUS, DISPLACEMENT, AND MY CUBAN-AMERICAN IDENTITY: THE ODYSSEY OF MAKING AND BECOMING WAKING DARKNESS. WAITING LIGHT.

Waking Darkness. Waiting Light. was an evening-length dance/multimedia event performed on October 7-9, 2016, in the Kogod Theatre at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Created in collaboration with my artistic partner, Matt Reeves, the work explored themes of identity, family, displacement, journeying, and exile through the lens of research into my maternal family’s stories of life and exodus from Cuba, as well as investigations into my own identity as a Cuban-American. This paper journeys through the autobiographical research and collaboration process that went into creating Waking Darkness. Waiting Light. Sewn into the fabric of this paper is personal poetry written as part of my creative practice. The performance work and this paper journey between the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and present day America