In late-September 2023 I enjoyed the rare opportunity to present my research about Victoria Santa Cruz’s Paris years . . . at a conference in Paris!
Vera Wolkowicz organized a terrific international conference exploring the topic “Music, Cultural Policies and Identities: Transatlantic Encounters Between Music and Musicians of Europe and Latin America” at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences on Paris’s Left Bank. I am grateful to have shared my work about Victoria Santa Cruz and the University of the Theatre of Nations with this inspiring gathering of scholars and thinkers.
After hours, I found time for a bit of archival research in the collections of the National Audiovisual Institute, where I listened to interviews that shed light on Victoria’s Paris experience at the Theatre of Nations in the 1960s. I also retraced Victoria Santa Cruz’s pathways in Paris by walking to several sites where she studied, lived, worked, and directed theatrical productions. Here is the Chaillot Theatre, where Peru’s National Folklore Ensemble made its Paris debut under Victoria’s direction in 1975 in a world tour produced by Mel Howard. At that time, the Chaillot Theatre’s director was one of Victoria’s former classmates from the University of the Theatre of Nations. More about that in my upcoming book about Victoria Santa Cruz’s international career. . . .
