I am excited to share that I was selected for The Arizona Republic & azcentral's Who's Next: Arts list. It is an honor to be recognized by the Arizona art community! See the announcement here. Also, thank you to Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts for sharing my recognition as well. See ASU's shout out here.
This weekend, I embarked upon a new and exciting yet-to-be-named two year collaboration and project. The project will culminate with a site specific performance on the U.S.-México border in Douglas and Agua Prieta in 2020. Project collaborators include myself, Xanthia Walker of Rising Youth Theater from Phoenix, AZ and M. Jenea Sánchez of Douglas/Agua Prieta. We will each be partnering with a young artist for this project. I am excited to be working with Isis América Tovar from Agua Prieta, Sonora. América is a talented young dancer who trains with Maestro Juan Luís Angeles González at Ballet Angeles de Agua Prieta. I look forward to sharing more as things develop!
Tonight the Tucson Magnet High School's Intermediate/Advanced Modern class will debut "Farewell" at their fall concert. The piece is about friendships, memories, and saying goodbye and it was choreographed with input by the student dancers.
Thank you Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix for commissioning the piece "Duality: Ometeotl" for the 2018 Día de los Muertos Celebration. "Duality: Ometeotl" is an eight minute duet and performance ritual designed to be mobile, site adaptive, and interactive. The piece was originated by dancers Delia Ibáñez and Miguel A. Jarillo Pedraza. Masks were designed by Zarco Guerrero. Thank you to Safos Dance Theatre for sponsoring the performance of this piece.
What an amazing day! This morning, I co-moderated a plenary about Dance in the Desert at the Network of Ensemble Theater's re:Routes National Gathering & Symposium in Tempe, AZ. I took the stage with an amazing group of women featuring Dance in the Desert co-leaders and participants Gabriela Muñoz, Adriana Bibi Harris, Reyna Montoya, Ruby Morales, and Erin Donohue. We talked about horizontal leadership, cultural values like confianza, respeto, and the aesthetics of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and the Southwest. A full video of the plenary can be found below. Then this evening my piece "Braceros" was performed at the NET Conference's Evening of Mini Performances. "Braceros," an excerpt from
