Sandra Rivera

Sandra Rivera is a dancer, choreographer, educator and writer.  Drawing on experience as a founding member of Ballet Hispanico and training from Tina Ramirez, she wrote Spanish Dance in New York City’s Puerto Rican Community, published in 2021 for the journal Dance Index. She is a member of the collective, ColectivXs and most recently presented her film Zemi 2, Remembering Hurricane Maria in their production of Toward A Latinx Practice in November 2021. Since 1990 she has choreographed and performed contemporary dances that incorporate diverse Latino dance forms that include folkloric, social and flamenco dance.  Her solo dance portraits have been presented at the Caramoor International Music Festival, The Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, The Abrons Art Center and the 92nd Street Y.

 In the field of sacred dance she has been an artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine with the Omega Dance Co. She directed dances for the annual St. Francis Day, Blessing of the Animals as well as producing a series of dance concerts during the Holy Week season that included Flamenco Meditations and En Espiritu: St. Teresa de Avila.   

 Drawing on her Puerto Rican heritage she has created and produced work for the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center in East Harlem including the autobiographical, Barrio Girl, A Life Through Dance and Path of the Artist, An Homage to Julia de Burgos. 

 She has been a teaching artist for numerous institutions, including Ballet Hispanico where she created an impressive body of work that included providing foundational content for their early educational program, Primeros Pasos.  She continues her long association with the Ballet Hispanico School of Dance which currently involves consulting work on their Spanish dance curriculum and reconstructing dances of the repertories of Tina Ramirez and Lola Bravo. Her teaching work with El Mueso del Barrio led to choreographing the 50-member COMMUNITY ensemble piece, Star That Guided Three Kings and later production Aguinaldo, A Puerto Rican Celebration.  Over a 12 year span at PS 182 (East Harlem) she created Bailes del Pueblo, a dance program that explores the culture, history and literature of the Latinx community.

 She was featured in Kiri Avelar’s Descubrimiento: Voice, Place, Identity choreographing and performing Pasodoble.  Her ongoing research and exploration of the 17th century writer Sor Juana de la Cruz lead to collaborating with Franchesca Marisol Cabrera in a series of dance films entitled Resistencia with future plans to create an educational dance unit informed by this joint effort. 

 She has been presenting a lecture and workshop series in such venues as the Ballet Hispanico School, Hunter College Dance Department, Latinx Dance Educators Alliance, Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, National Dance Education Organization and City Lore with future programing to be presented across the US college circuit.  Her social activism work is reflected in the ongoing Repuesta, A Dance Action that was initiated in 2018 in response to the separation of families at the border.

Since 2018 she has centered her work on senior populations with her association with the company, Dances For A Variable Population, where serves as a teaching artist, choreographer and performer in five productions of their Revival dance series. Through their auspices she has been awarded the Creatives Rebuild NY Artist Employment program.

 She serves on the board of Clark Center NYC where she has participated in the presentations, From the Horse’s Mouth, Remembering Clark Center, 92StY and 60 Years of The Clark Center for the Library for the Performing Arts.  With an area of concentration, Dance in the Latino Diaspora, she graduated with a BA from CUNY’S Baccalaureate for Unique & Interdisciplinary Studies.