Danza y Frontera (Tanz und Grenze)

Endangered Human Movements Vol. 4

Performance

“When I saw the dance for the first time in a youtube video I said to myself, something very strong must happen to this men in order for them to move like this”

Leonor Maldonado, Filmmaker

 

The piece corresponds to the fourth volume of the research on “Endangered Human Movements” * and it is based on a dance that arises at the border between Mexico and the US. The dance from the neighborhood of El Ejido Veinte of Matamoros, Tamaulipas (MX),lead by dance-leader Rodrigo de la Torre,  is performed today in a context of extreme violence related to a border where narcotraffic, militarization, and cheap labour industries meet.  The dance has its roots in an ancient pre-hispanic dance form that was later used by the Spanish Crown, (Casa Austria / Habsburg) to develop the conquest of Mexico as a Danza de Conquista, a conquest dance. It continued to transform itself till today used as a form of resistance to colonial and later neoliberal forces. A contemporary pop-cultural appropriation in which indigenous practices, colonial narratives, Hip Hop culture and indigenous mysticism resonate.

 

Danza y Frontera explores this border choreography and brings its protagonists to Vienna in the context of the advancement of Fortress Europe. As border subjects, the performers inhabit a place in between, understanding its power and limitations, dancing beyond all notions of borders be they cultural, national or aesthetic.

LIVING IN BORDERLANDS,  A film about Danza y Frontera by Susana Ojeda here :https://vimeo.com/328134772