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Fundación Espacio Creativo – Panama
There is a moment in an artist’s training when years of work, sacrifice, hours of rehearsal, and the support of those who believed in them all come together in a single piece of news. For eight students in Fundación Espacio Creativo’s Programa Enlaces, that moment arrived this year: they were accepted into some of the most prestigious contemporary dance training institutions in the world, in Canada, France, Mexico, and Italy.
Jean Pierre Córdoba and Elías Estrada will continue their training at the École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal; Maikeilis Earle and Luis Mendoza will study at the Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán; Claudia Hamilton and Ángel Valderrama were admitted to Cellule d’Excellence / EPSEDANSE in France; and Rafael Caicedo and Josías Díaz will join Art Factory International in Italy.
Eight young people. Four countries. One shared message: the talent that grows in El Chorrillo, Santa Ana, and San Felipe can reach the world.
This achievement didn’t happen overnight. It is the result of more than 15 years of sustained work through Programa Enlaces, which accompanies girls, boys, and young people from vulnerable communities in their artistic formation, investing in them when the system often doesn’t.
Each of these eight young people will carry Panama with them as they learn, create, and exchange with artists from around the world. And when they return, they will bring back something invaluable: the certainty that they came from communities that shaped them, and that art has the power to open doors that once seemed closed.