Humanizados: a collective dance from students

Abstract

The group Humanizados, from the Centro de Estudios Generales de la Universidad Nacional [Center for General Studies of Universidad Nacional], Costa Rica, shows how the task of stimulating and raising awareness in regards to the discipline of dance is carried out through art and culture, bringing it closer to the university community, with special emphasis on the students who study at the Centro.
This task has been by creating a dance group, a creative space that develops a task of dissemination and extension through various actions since 2012. These actions include the creation of artistic performances, workshops, and lectures. They put students in contact with the art of movement, allowing them to obtain comprehensive training to understand humanism as knowledge and as a way of life; so the students can consider themselves as human beings concerned about their environment and their reality while studying at the Center for General Studies.
Teaching-learning processes, carried out with the members of Humanizados, are facilitated through the number of workshops conducted with a diversity of teachers. These workshops allow interaction, solidarity and teamwork, and the achievement of common objectives; they encourage discipline, the development of skills and abilities in dancers who explore new possibilities of movement from their own bodies, having recourse to creativity, originality, and innovation. They also contribute to awakening new horizons and new experiences to discover, with their body and mind, the experience of the new. Standing on stage in front of an audience allows them to experience stage fright; in the future, this experience will let them be potential audiences to go to the theater.
Since 2012, these processes have been carried out thanks to the participation of fifty-five students in the dance group Humanizados throughout this time, the staging of more than thirty-five choreographies, the active participation of twelve national and international teachers through workshops, and the organization of fifteen artistic performances, twice a year, showcased in the Clodomiro Picado Auditorium of the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica. The experience also included the participation as organizers of five International artistic-humanist meetings, through lectures, talks, shows, and artistic workshops, with the participation of Latin American countries, in the city of Heredia, and numerous university extension presentations in communities within the country. Besides, seven international tours with the group in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico extended the learning experience.
Art is an excellent way to stimulate a culture of peace, strengthen self-esteem and security in the individual, and keep people away from vices and drugs. Thanks to the meetings, it has been possible to consolidate and coordinate interdisciplinary teams with the five state universities and governmental and non-governmental bodies. Undoubtedly, it is a significant learning experience for their lives.