Educational Media Reviews Online

Soy Andina tells the story of two dancers living in the United States who immerse themselves in the culture and dance of Peru. Regrettably, the documentary’s lack of explanation of the culture prevents viewers from sharing this same sense of immersion.

Soy Andina nicely pairs overlapping stories of two New York City dancers, Cynthia Paniagua and Nélida Silva. Cynthia is a native New Yorker born to one parent of Puerto Rican descent and another of Peruvian descent. Nélida, a New Yorker for eighteen years, is originally from the Peruvian town of Llamellín. Cynthia is trained as a modern dancer rather than folkloric, yet her curiosity about Peruvian dance leads her to Nélida, the founder of Ballet Folklorico Peru in Patterson, New Jersey. Cynthia’s curiosity, along with Nélida’s mentoring, lead her to successfully applying for a Fulbright grant to study dance in Lima.

As the setting of the story moves to Peru, Cynthia is shown navigating her new life and dance classes in Lima while Nélida leads the Fiesta Patronal, a multi-day festival in honor of the Virgin Mary, in her hometown of Llamellín. Eventually Cynthia grows frustrated with the barriers preventing her from fully experiencing Afro-Peruvian dance, so she leaves the city and travels to Afro-Peruvian cultural centers and learns dances such as La Marinera and Tondero.

So much culture is shared by the film’s central characters, yet so little of it is explained. Footage of the La Marinera and Tondero dances are shown, yet what do these dances mean, beyond the fact that the Tondero is a courtship dance? Where did they come from? Moreover, in general, dances are not shown from beginning to end.

This competently shot and edited film is a missed opportunity for comparing and exploring the two seemingly different Peruvian cultures experienced by Nélida and Cynthia. Being Andean is as culturally diverse and changing as any other cultural identity, yet this theme is never fully presented to the audience. Thus, this film is recommended with reservations for senior high school to adult audiences.