MISSION

Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company, founded by Colombian-born artist Federico Restrepo in 1985, develops and promotes creative productions of Dance, Theatre, Puppets, Visual Arts, Media, Music, and other forms of artistic expression. We aim to be a public association where artistic expression and cultural community meet. The company explores the junction of race, culture, history, and media in New York and throughout the global community.

Loco7’s cultural policies emphasize pluralism, dialogue, and cultural transformation. Loco7 is an organization that has been built on diversity and this is reflected in the history of work. Our audiences reflect our artists: they are multigenerational, multicultural, multiracial, and inclusive of all sexual and gender identities. We pay particular attention to the growing immigrant communities and support their efforts to engage within the community.

Loco7 is a Latinx-run organization that feels it is of the upmost importance to be inclusive and represent the voices of underrepresented people. More than 75% of our staff, board of directors, and artists identify as people of color, female, and/or LGBTQ+. Loco7 is in Manhattan’s Community Board 3, which is racially diverse. With our community in mind, Loco7 strives to make art accessible to all. The company is a modest, not-for-profit experimental theatre ensemble that is artist-run and maintains a small office and storage facility in New York City. In addition, the company provides an artistic home and professional foundation for a multicultural group of performers, designers and theatre artists who collaborate with Loco7 on a project basis.

Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company is unique in that it is focused on providing underrepresented, underserved, and emerging artists the opportunity to create and collaborate with Loco7. Loco7 provides an environment of creative freedom for artists to explore, and develop their artistic practice. With our limited budget, we provide the maximum amount of opportunities to our artists to horn their skills and grow within the ensemble.

Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company is a not-for-profit 501c3 corporation.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Manhattan has always been a gathering and trading place for many Indigenous peoples. Loco7 pay respect to all of their ancestors past, present, and future. We acknowledge that this theater, and this work, is situated on the island of Manhattan (Mannahatta) traditional lands of the Lenape, the Manahatin, the Canarsie, the Shinnecock, the Haudenosaunee, and the Munsee. We respect that many Indigenous peoples continue to live and work on this island and acknowledge their ongoing contributions to this land. We offer our care, gratitude, and welcome.

INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We collectively acknowledge that our arts community must itself be just, equitable, and inclusive to meaningfully contribute to social progress and envisions a community wherein power, funding, opportunities, conduct, and impacts are fair for all artists, cultural workers, and audiences. We collectively amplify the voices and autonomy of the African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA) community.

ACCESSIBILITY

Our programs are welcoming to all. Free or low-cost (on a sliding scale) and accessible to the general public.