Living in Borderlands

Endangered Human Movements Vol.4

Video Works

A film about the performance Danza y Frontera, by Amanda Piña / nadaproductions directed by Susana Ojeda and filmed by estudio el gozo.

The Volume 4 of the research on “Endangered Human Movements” *  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), 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.