Ashley Lucas – Mostly Dance

Living in Costa Rica is always full of surprises, and the opportunity to participate in a workshop with a group of nine men in Finca La Paz provided a unique experience. La Paz is considered a semi-institutional facility, where the men live Monday through Thursday and are able to return to their families Friday through Sunday. We wondered if these men were close to the end of their sentences but learned that wasn’t the case.

Ana Celia Zentella and I joined Ashley Lucas, Viciente Concilio and Caroline Vetori in the workshop they led. Mario Vircha also participated, along with two other dancers that I had met the day before.

Alvaro, my driver and friend, had arranged to meet the others in San Ramon and then drive to the prison. With no traffic on this route, we arrived in plenty of time to enjoy breakfast together. The dancers were running late and said they would meet us at the prison. Now the challenge was to find the prison. The directions were unclear, and so we all turned to Alvaro to figure it out. Alvaro saw two postal delivery men sitting in the restaurant and went over and asked them. Nodding his head, he let us know that he now had an idea where to go, and so we piled into two cars with Ashley and her team following us.

Much to our delight Alvaro had indeed figured it out, and we soon saw a Costa Rican flag attached to a building,indicating we were at a government facility. It was totally surprising to me as there was no barbed wire – just a gate with two guards standing there looking as though they were waiting for us. Behind the gate one could easily see a rustic dormitory-type building, lots of trees, and a space with table and chairs that looked like an open eating area. Alvaro pulled into a nearby parking spot and went up to introduce himself. I easily checked in showing my ID, and the guard confirmedthat I was on the list. Ashley, Vicente, Caroline and Ana Celia also checked in, and we felt like we were in a nice country retreat rather than a prison. There was no double-door entrance that I experienced at other prisons. Some of the nine men that would be working with us were hanging out on a porch of the dormitory. Alvaro had talked with one of the guards and found out that there was a local bar a few kilometers farther up the road where he could watch a World Cup soccer game while we were at the prison.

The dancers texted to let us know that they were lost. Ashley gave them some ideas on how we had found the place, and it wasn’t long before they arrived. The guards were very polite and welcoming but reserved and not sure what to expect. They guided us to the room where we would be working. It was a dimly lit rectangle, and we requested enough chairs to make an oblong kind of shape with some open space in the middle. There was a pleasant grassy area right outside and we got permission to also work in that space.

Soon the men arrived, and we welcomed and greeted them by shaking hands and introducing ourselves. It was new for me that we had permission to shake hands, because in some facilities no physical contact is allowed. The men wore their own clothes, rather than uniforms. One could see different economic levels in the group based on how they were dressed.

After we greeted each other and Ashley described what we would be doing, we moved outside to the more welcoming and larger space. Caroline led us in the name game I had done the day before. All the men enthusiastically participated. The guards were clearly interested in what we were doing, and much to our delight the prison psychologist joined us in the circle participating when it was her turn.

Caroline giving us instructions for the name game. Photo taken by one of the guards.

I was not surprised that the men fully participated, as I had regularly experienced full participation in the workshops I had led in prisons and jails. For me, this workshop was a challenge because it was all in Spanish. The guards continued to take a major interest and began taking pictures and videos which we were amazed they shared with us after the program.

A sculpting activity in the small rectangular room. Photo by one of the guards.

There were a few opportunities for two of the men to share their drumming and singing talents. Toward the end of the workshop the three dancers improvised movements based on different themes the men shouted out.

Dancers improvising in a very small space.
Screenshot from video taken by
one of the guards.

At the end of the workshop we were asked to share what worked best for us, what was the hardest and what we might like to see in the future. Again, the guards chose to observe with a very positive attitude and one of them continued videoing. All the men were very positive. Luckily, I answered toward the end and was able to figure out how to respond in Spanish. I got a round of applause from the group for using my limited Spanish, which totally delighted me.

Again, much to my surprise, most of the men hugged us when they thanked us, which the staff did not seem to mind. While I found this unusual, I was not uncomfortable and found all the men respectful and glad to show appreciation for our coming to do a workshop with them.

As we left, the guards also expressed approval, and we felt a positive hope that a door had been opened for the dancers to continue doing workshops in the facility in the future. Alas, in the past month since the workshop several things have changed.

Three weeks later one of the men who had been in the workshop escaped from the facility. I asked a friend who has many contacts in the government to see if there might be a possibility to do a workshop in the women’s facility. She let me know that things were getting stricter in facilities countrywide and that this would not be a good time. In fact, an article in The Tico Times reported similarly that under the current administration in Costa Rica, decisions are being made toward stricter policies. I am glad we were able to do our program in July, as it may not be possible to do more workshops.

Following the workshop, Alvaro took this picture of those of us who participated
with the men in the workshop, along with one of the guards.

On a July afternoon, I walked into a dance studio on the second floor of the Centro de Artes Promenade and felt very much at home. Dancers were sprawled on the floor stretching, and there was a series of shelves for shoes and personal belongings. No one needed to remind me to take off my shoes. It had taken Alvaro (my favorite driver and friend) and I over an hour and a half to get to the studio, as it is located on the eastern side of San Jose, and Atenas is on the western side of San Jose. We had hit a major traffic jam on the way to the Center, but Alvaro had gotten off the main road and with the help of Waze found side roads to avoid the traffic. We made it with a few minutes to spare.

The building is quite lovely and is described as “a place to create, work and flow without stress.” As Alvaro and I entered the building we saw a cafeteria to our left and soon were greeted warmly by Ashley Lucas, Vicente Concilio, Caroline Vetori and Ana Celia Zentella. We easily recognized each other from a Zoom meeting. I was joining them for two days of workshops, and then a few days later Ashley, Vicente, and Caroline would come to Casa Uno for the only three-week residency I scheduled for 2026.

I had reached out to Ashley, who is a Professor at the University of Michigan. She had come up in a Google search for people who did arts programs in prisons. When she wrote about the project she was doing with two colleagues from Brazil, I was fascinated and decided that this was a residency I wanted to welcome to Casa Uno. I loved the idea that they were involved in both writing and theatre programs in prisons and had worked in such settings for many years.

Ashley is a scholar of the arts in prisons, having personally visited 15 countries and seen programs in action. She has written a book that I look forward to reading called Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration. The University of Michigan has a Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) which includes a journal that showcases the talent and diversity of writers incarcerated in Michigan, and an annual art exhibit. Students are trained to lead theatre and writing workshops in Michigan’s prisons.

Once the residency at Casa Uno was confirmed, Ashley went to work figuring out how to do a workshop in a prison in Costa Rica when she, Caroline, Ana Celia, and Vicente were here. Through Ana Celia, who had been in the Peace Corps years ago in Costa Rica and still had contacts here, she was able to arrange a workshop in a small men’s prison. In addition, a contact from the University of Michigan put her in touch with Mario Vircha, who is the director of a dance company connected with the University of Costa Rica. Ashley arranged for us to do a workshop with two professional contemporary dance companies to introduce them to her team’s work. Mario and two other dancers would join us the next day for the workshop in prison.

Ashley invited me to share the work I did with The Avodah Dance Ensemble in prisons as part of the workshop. (For an example of Avodah’s work in prisons see this blog.) I spent two weeks planning what I would say in the 15 minutes I was assigned. I chose my words carefully, since I would be speaking in English and then Ana Celia would translate into Spanish. Ashley said she, Vicente and Caroline would lead us in a movement/improv workshop such as they might lead in their prison work. Then we would speak about our work in the prisons. I would go first.

I asked Alvaro if he would like to join us in the dance studio and photograph the session using my cell phone, and I am very grateful to Alvaro for the series of photos that I can now share.

The 20 dancers in the room were from two different dance companies. Each company was composed of 10 dancers, who are paid a full-time year-round salary approved and paid by the government. That was surprising news for me, and I hope to interview one of the dancers or company directors for a future blog.

Once everyone had gathered in the spacious studio, we made a large circle and the workshop began with Caroline leading us to say our name with a movement. That was fun and an activity I had used at a labyrinth workshop I led at my home a few weeks before. Next Vicente asked us to find a partner. One partner led with their hand while the other partner had to keep their eyes on the hand and follow, letting the movement develop. That was a new movement improvisation for me and was fun to do. I was delighted my dance partner considered my range of movement and made it easy for me to follow her.

My turn leading with my hand. Photo by Alvaro.

Ashley led with a more complicated circle game with key words like “woosh” and “woo,” which stopped and started flow of movement, and that was a bit tricky for me. Building sculptures was fun to do and again something I was familiar with. The bottom line was, if I knew the activity it was easy for me to follow the instructions in Spanish but when an exercise was entirely new, it was harder and sometimes I had to ask for a few key words in English, which were happily supplied. Following the movement activities we all gathered around a large TV that had been set up so we could talk about our work and show slides.

While I stumbled at first in speaking, I quickly got in the flow of speaking and pausing for Ana Celia to translate for me. Soon I was finished and Ana Celia spoke of her work, followed by Ashley, Vicente and Caroline. The dancers were attentive, and excellent questions followed. It was clear working in prisons was new to them, and it seemed we piqued some interest for following through with some work in Costa Rican prisons.

Me, presenting. Ana Celia, who helped me translate, is in the chair. Ashley is in the striped shirt, and Caroline is in the black, square-necked leotard. Photo by Alvaro.

The day concluded with some refreshments and socializing. The mood was very welcoming and warm. I was delighted to have learned more about the contemporary dance scene in Costa Rica and to have had the opportunity to be part of the workshop, both as a participant and as a presenter. And most of all it felt quite wonderful to be in a dance studio around dancers. I have missed that.

Tag: Ashley Lucas

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