Bellas Artes pays tribute to five essential Mexican dancers
Bellas Artes pays tribute to five essential Mexican dancers
Gloria Contreras, Nieves Paniagua, Rossana Filomarino, Lidya Romero and Sunny Savoy will receive the tribute
▲ Teacher, choreographer and dancer Gloria Contreras (1934-2015), founder of the UNAM Choreographic Workshop, during a practice in 1954. Photo taken from the Danza UNAM Facebook page.
Fabiola Palapa Quijas
La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, p. 5
The Palacio de Bellas Artes' Diverse Dances, Diverse Bodies season, which runs from today through August 7, includes the Danced Autobiographies series, which pays tribute to five essential women in the development of the Mexican dance scene: Gloria Contreras, Nieves Paniagua, Rossana Filomarino, Lidya Romero, and Sunny Savoy.
This is a showcase of performances that address the art of the moving body from a variety of perspectives and languages.
Choreographer and director of the group El Cuerpo Mutable/Teatro de Movimiento, Lidya Romero, commented that this series has become a festival of plurality, representing a wide variety of styles, languages, and bodies.
Romero emphasized: the Danced Autobiographies cycle will be an exercise in history and memory for the construction of this heritage that is part of our identity and how we have grown together, audiences and creators
.
Reflection tables
The dancer explained that the series consists of two discussion panels that will take place on July 19 and August 2 at 1:00 p.m. in the Manuel M. Ponce Hall. Specialists, critics, and academics will participate, discussing the unique characteristics of the work, the aesthetics, and the poetics of each honoree.
A discussion with the performers and stage creators who shape the work, the choreographers' ideas, and the images is scheduled for July 30th. A photography exhibition will be held in the lobby of the Palacio de Bellas Artes from July 15th to August 9th.
On July 19, Romero and her company will celebrate 50 years of dancing on stage with the work Luna de Shanghai, presented as a nonlinear cinematic narrative and supported by abstract images that suggest relationships and disagreements, intrigue, decadence, and eroticism.
Choreographer Rossana Filomarino is another of the honorees at Diversas Danzas Diversos Cuerpos for her 80 years of life and 60 years of artistic career. DramaDanza, the company she founded, will perform the large-scale work Migrantes on August 2nd, in which she offers a perspective that portrays the global phenomenon of migration, with its encounters, disagreements, problems, and desires that drive people to leave their places of origin.
Filomarino, who recently became a full member of the Academy of Arts, expressed: "I hope to do something for dance
." He thanked the head of the National Dance Coordination, Alonso Alarcón Múgica, for the tribute to his career.
Folklore and poetry, present
The Danced Autobiographies series also pays tribute to Gloria Contreras, founder of the UNAM Choreographic Workshop. She will be honored on August 5th with the program 90 Times Gloria, which will include choreographies such as Brandenburg No. 3, Nereids, Almost a Fantasy , and Huapango.
On July 24, the National Folk Dance Company of Nieves Paniagua will give a special performance in honor of its artistic director and founder, who passed away on May 30. This will also mark the 50th anniversary of the group's dedication to spreading the dance traditions of indigenous peoples.
Sunny Savoy, director of the group that bears her name, will present the choreography Another Place, inspired by a Navajo poem, on July 31.
Diverse Dances, Diverse Bodies will begin today with the participation of the Contemporary Dance Production Center (Ceprodac), which, under the direction of Cecilia Lugo, will premiere the piece "Se nos quedan ellos" (They Were Left Behind), by Guanajuato-based choreographer Francisco Córdova. The piece revolves around the inherent changes in human life.
Also part of the season is the Circo ContemporáNEO multidisciplinary dance, directed by Mauricio Nava, which on July 26 will offer a performance of the piece NO (proposal #56), in which it reflects on the behavior of modern society in response to that word.
The Mexico City Folk Dance Company will bring the choreographic program Semblanzas de México, directed by Alejandro Vázquez, to the Historic Center on July 29.
Meanwhile, on July 17, the public will be able to attend a flamenco gala, featuring Elisa Pérez, María Martha Rodríguez, Marién Luévano, and Érika Suárez.
The detailed schedule can be found on the website https://palacio.inba.gob.mx/
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