Raven Performing Arts Theater presents Who Will Dance with Pancho Villa?

Who Will Dance with Pancho Villa? played to sold-out audiences in January. First performed off-Broadway in 1994, the playwrights updated the story with the introduction of the Ballet Folklórico Legado de Mi Alegría de Cloverdale Ca while developing the play further through the Raven Players’ ScripTease program. It is the story of a young Chicano from Chicago, lured to the East Coast by an Ivy League scholarship. As he tries to make a life there, he neglects family relationships and deep cultural roots established throughout generations. It takes his mother’s nearly fatal heart attack, help from a Jewish therapist, and the visitation of the spirits of his long dead relatives (and of his historical idol, Pancho Villa) to help him realize what he’s lost, and how to get it back. Dancing spirits, who are intertwined throughout the play, help remind “Chicano” of the joy in dancing, especially when dancing is much more than dancing.