Choreographing for the Head and the Heart, with Martha Santos

Originally from Ecuador, raised with a strict faith; Martha spent her life exploring the relationship between her head and her heart.

A shared love of dance, education and history fueled her but left her feeling divided. Listen in as we talk about how learned to be in her body, express herself and to integrate these passions to create a life that communicates the whole of who she is.

Martha Santos is an Associate Professor of history at the University of Akron, Ohio, where she also researches on women’s and gender history.

In 2019 she developed her revolutionary course: “Salsa: History in Motion,” to offer students an experiential and innovative way to teach the history and dance practice of Salsa. She will teach it at the Sorbonne, in Paris later this year.

A GIFT FROM MARTHA TO LISTENERS

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKu-rFTDCdsyTffFIkQJfg

Link to my youtube channel, that contains a series of documentaries on the "Salsa: History in Motion" course that I developed at the University of Akron in the fall of 2019, along with Lenin Guerrero Maldonado, Director of Salcity of Angels Dance Company and Juan Contreras, Video Production instructor at the University of Akron. The course was an experiential, inter-disciplinary class that incorporated dance and history in the teaching and learning of the history of salsa in the Caribbean and New York City.

The documentaries, made by University of Akron students who took a "Video Production" course taught in conjunction with the Salsa History class, narrate the experience of dancing in a history class, and of incorporating mind and body in a history college classroom, for both students and instructors.