Let’s introduce Alvaro Restrepo

Colombian dancer and choreographer, born in Cartagena de Indias on September 10, 1957. He has a Cartagena family and was raised in Bogotá. According to him, it was his great-aunt Maruja de León de Luna who revealed his passion for art and spirituality. When he was younger, Restrepo already showed himself to be a person of great social sensitivity. He volunteered at Bosconia, a famous program for homeless children in Bogotá. That experience marked him and led him to worry especially about the tragedies of marginalized childhood. Restrepo was formed in New York and reaped his first triumphs in Europe.
Since 1997, Álvaro Restrepo has dedicated his energy to El Colegio del Cuerpo, a visionary dance centre in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), where, with Marie France Delieuvin, he has taught thousands of young people, often in the most precarious situations, and created works of exceptional beauty and moral force. He is a dear friend and one of the people I count myself most fortunate to have met. When he sent me this text, which he’d written for El Tiempo, I immediately asked him if I could share it here