Film Treatment

A film treatment is a visual description of the story from start to finish. We prepared this for funders who requested it and as a guide in the editing process.

Soy Andina tells the intersecting stories of two New Yorkers – a modern/hip-hop dance dancer raised in Queens, and a folkloric dancer from the Andes – on a dazzling odyssey through Peru in search of roots and a world of folkloric dance.

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CYNTHIA IN NEW YORK

In the opening scene, a young woman in a leather jacket enters the subway station beneath Bloomingdales. She sees an Andean music group playing on the platform and breaks out in a dance that leaves commuters stunned and clapping. We hear voice-over: “I’ve always wanted to dance in the subway. Not a lot of people have the balls but it’s worth it!”

Meet Cynthia Paniagua, a hybrid Latina New Yorker – the daughter of a conservative Peruvian nurse and hipster Nuyorican musician, a modern dancer who grew up with salsa and later embraces hip-hop – the music, the sense of community, the ethos of “keepin’ it real."

But she was also yearning to reconnect with her Peruvian roots – especially the music and dance she'd remembered as a girl when her mom took her to Lima to meet family (seen in home movies).

Now a dance professional, she was yearning to learn and incorporate the traditional Peruvian dances into her work. A friend suggests a website:

“Ever since I was 16, I was…looking for a Peruvian dance outlet here and kept coming up short. When I hooked onto the website “Soy Andina,” the first images of her, Nelida waving her handkerchief with this playful look on her face, I knew that I had found something…"

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NELIDA IN THE ANDES

Nelida had returned to her birthplace of Llamellin, a remote village in the Andes, after 15 years in New York to fulfill a dream and host the "fiesta patronal" — an astonishing eight days of dance, music, and ritual, rarely seen by outsiders, that honors both the Virgin Mother and the indigenous traditions that predate the Spanish Conquest.

Like many Andeans, she migrated to Lima, where she felt like “an immigrant in my own country," and later to New York.

But she never let go of her lifelong dream of hosting the festival. In the year 2000, after separating from her husband, and with her elderly father ailing, she returns.

Llamellin: 10,000 feet high and 16 hours by bus from Lima in the remote central Andes. For eight days, Neli and the village are immersed in ritual, dance and music - from the procession of the Virgin to the re-enactment of the battle between the Incas and Spanish... from bullfights and fireworks to a procession of women with guinea pigs that mock the Spanish running of the bulls. Two brass bands play day and night, and the chicha and beer never stop flowing, to the dismay of the padre.

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THE FIRST ENCOUNTER: NEW YORK

Reading about Neli’s story on the website strikes a deep chord with Cynthia. She meets Nelida at Pio Pio, the Peruvian restaurant and cultural hub in Queens.

There the two characters dance together – marinera from the coast, huaynos from the Andes, festejos from the Afro-Peuvian region.

Cynthia recounts the night: “Dancing with Nelida had a big impact on me. I was trained to be so technical…and she just flowed. I can’t put my finger on what she does, she gives off energy… Nelida opened a door for me.”

Now connected, the two women choreograph and perform an autobiographical piece, using folkloric and modern dance to tell the story of their lives. Nelida then introduces Cynthia to dance groups in the Peruvian enclave of Patterson, NJ, one hour from New York, but another world.

“When I first went I was amazed” says Cynthia. “I heard people talking Spanish with the Peruvian accent. I saw advertisements for Inca Cola. It sounded, smelled, looked like Peru.”

Cynthia decides she must move to Peru, “Because folk dance is about how you live and breathe. And there’s no better place to learn than in the actual environment.” Though her own family isn’t too supportive: “You’re going the wrong way, our relatives are trying to get here!”

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CYNTHIA MOVES TO LIMA

Cynthia arrives in Lima and at first it’s great – her relatives greet her with parties, and she begins classes at the two biggest folkloric dance schools in the country. She finds and moves into her own apartment – the first time she’d ever lived alone. But things change, and frustration sets in.

“It's been five months since I’ve been here, trying to quench the need to find the part of me that I know is buried in the mystery of these dances. It turned out to be harder that I thought. I went through a serious identity crisis. In New York, I was used to being referred to as “the Peruvian” or “Puerto Rican girl.” And when I came to Lima, I’m “la gringa,” the American chick – and I don’t identify!

Cynthia’s crisis brings us back to Nelida’ story. For Neli had also been the outsider in Lima, 20 years earlier, when she arrived from the Andes. Neli writes to Cynthia as a mentor, and her letter (heard as voiceover) describes the scene.

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NELI MOVES TO LIMA

“I not only understand your frustration, I completely relate to it. As you are the "cute gringa," I was "la serrana” when I arrived in Lima.

I remember the night I left Llamellin. It was the rainy season and the buses didn’t drive to Llamellin. We had to leave with my mother by horse. On the patio of my house, my father waved bye bye. We rode horses for 24 hours to the nearest town, where the buses were.

When you’re approaching Lima from the north, you pass a large area called “pasamayo.” It’s where you can see the sea for the first time. I remember it was so foggy, grey, and sad after coming from our beautiful Llamellin. And then we arrived to the city.

The first year I went to a school near my house. The kids made fun of me. I felt like a completely stranger. And I was…..The city didn’t seem to have a rhythm. It was just noise. It wasn’t rhythmic like Llamellin, where everything has a rhythm - the wind moving the eucalyptus, the birds are singing...

Cynthia, go when you can to the pueblitos and experience yourself the traditions there. But first, start by going to the fiestas of my hometown Llamellin - the version that’s celebrated in Lima by the Llamellinos who migrated here. You must go! Dance as much as possible for me…”

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CYNTHIA'S JOURNEY: UP THE COAST, INTO THE ANDES

Cynthia embarks on a journey into the provinces – the coast, the Andes, and the Afro-Peruvian community, each with a distinctive culture, music and dance.

Arpa – A dusty shantytown outside of Lima, where the Llamellin festival is recreated by Andean immigrants who’ve moved in Lima. Cynthia goes and gets literally swept up in the dances of Nelida’s paisanos.

Puno – Cynthia travels to Peru's folklore capital in the Andes for the feast of the Virgin of Candelaria. Thousands of dancers from throughout Peru converge to perform hundreds of spectacular dances. Cynthia is enamored with the beauty but also "I began make a connection between hip hop and folklore because both represent marginalized groups. The folkloric dances depict the repression of the Indians. And hip hop talks about the injustices in el barrio."

Mantaro Valley – Cynthia journeys to a small village in the Central Andes to know its distinct folklore culture, a trip highlighted by a local patron saint festival. Cynthia muses more on the notion of tradition vs. progress, and wonders how long traditions like this will remain alive.

Chincha – Cynthia heads down the coast into the heart of black Peruvian culture for Carnival. The music and dance are highlighted by hybrid folk forms like lando and festejo that recall the sounds and rhythms of West Africa Here, Cynthia meets Amador Ballumbrosio, a legendary singer-musician who helps to preserve its music and dance tradition. Like in the New York subway, Cynthia explodes in spontaneous dance, this time on the streets.

Trujillo/Piura – Cynthia travels to the northern coast to compete in a concurso (contest). Besides giving the film an exciting climax, this sequence returns to the theme of tradition and change. When Nelida was growing up, concursos hardly existed - people danced to dance, to connect to each other and the earth. Today, concursos are flourishing, with cash prizes to the winners. Good or bad? Young people are keeping the dances alive, but if it’s more about winning...

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REUNITING IN PERU

In the film’s moving finale, the two characters’ stories converge once more. Nelida returns from New York to visit the gravesite of her father, who had died a year earlier. Days later, Cynthia returns from her trips. Together they attend a carnival near Lima forNeli’s Andean paisanos. Dressed in the traditional costumes, they joini the hundreds of others in ritual dance. Neli’s father has passed on, and she’s left her homeland long ago, but the traditions and spirit remain alive - and that is cause for celebration.