The Colegio del Cuerpo eCdC (eCdC College of the Body) began life in Cartegena de Indias, Colombia, in 1997, as an initiative by its co-founders and co-directors Marie France Delieuvin and Álvaro Restrepo.

eCdC is a cultural and educational space, plural and democratic, which offers the opportunity to build a new ethic of the human body, indissoluably linked to certain aesthetic and artistic quests, in turn associated with contemporary events in cultural, social, political and economic life. eCdC fulfills its mission in four fields: training, creation, public awareness, research and documentation.

eCdC has now reached adulthood and is entering on “the age to reap”. Over 8000 children and young people of African and mixed descent from the most deprived areas of this World Heritage City in the Caribbean have passed through its programmes in the past 18 years. Our two main aims are to educate through dance and for dance.

Through dance we offer an integrated physical education: sexual education, prevention of addictions and violence, ecology of the body, nutrition and health, rights, identity etc. The aim is to inhabit our bodies with dignity.

For dance: talent spotting and professional training for those who want to make this their career – dancers, performenrs, teachers, choreographers, arts managers, etc.

The Colegio del Cuerpo eCdC has contributed to raising awareness among children, young people and teachers in Colombia and all over the world; to creating audiences both in Colombia and internationally of people who have seen our artistic work, created by the directors and performed by the dancers of the Compañía del Cuerpo de Indias in Latin America, the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa.

“I often describe the eCdC as an animal with four legs and a heart on which we are trying to ride, giving equal importance to each part of it so that our walk (and dance) is harmonious and the creature does not limp… An artistic leg, an educational one, a social one and a political one, giving life to the animal through a heart connected to the power of the earth… to nature.”

Alvaro Restrepo

Invited by the CODESPA Foundation to mark their 30th birthday, the Compañía Cuerpo de Indias (professional nucleus of eCdC) will present, at the Sala Ovidi Montllor in Barcelona, one of their latest creations, Flowers for Kazuo Ohno and Leonard Cohen. This is a homage to two great artists who have found how to turn their age and their times into works of art.

On Saturday 2nd April the ten dancers of the Compañía Cuerpo de Indias, most of them trained since childhood at eCdC, under the direction of Marie France Deliuvin and Álvaro Restrepo, will present fragments of their repertoire and share their story with the public. They will discuss their concerns and how they interact, regarding art, education, social and political issues, with the complex situation in their country, which is now on the path to reconciliation after over 60 years of undeclared civil war.

Link to extracts from the piece:
https://vimeo.com/120147198
Link to a ceremony in homage to the victims of the war in Colombia:
http://youtu.be/sNgMMc2K6dY