Approaching dance as a humanistic training phenomenon, Claudia Lavista’s ‘leitmotiv’

Approaching dance as a phenomenon of humanistic formation, community builder and tool for critical thinkingis the leimotiv by dancer and choreographer Claudia Lavista, director of Dance at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who assumed that position last May.

Presenting the UNAM Dance program, Lavista explained: “It is about promoting proposals that place the expressive body at the center of social and participatory action, from the artistic, educational and community levels.

We want to build bridges and be in dialogue with all types of dance, contexts and cultures to generate autonomous and creative spaces. The idea is to think of dance as a great interconnected prism, so that everything that reaches UNAM resonates in artistic communities in Mexico and around the world, and that allows us to connect.

In order for Danza UNAM to be a project of plural and inclusive ideas and actions, activated for this art, the choreographer and dancer described that there will be five main projects: the programming of the Miguel Covarrubias room and the Dance Hall, the UNAM Choreographic Workshop (TCUNAM), the UNAM Youth Contemporary Dance Company (DAJU), the Danza UNAM Workshops and the Gloria Contreras Extraordinary Chair.

Regarding the program presented in the Dance Hall, he pointed out that there will be the participation of two international groups: the Cuerpo de Indias Company (Colombia) of Álvaro Restrepo and Luz Arca from Spain, a collaborative project with DAJU, as well as the premieres of the works Permanent transfer, by Cesar Broderman; Chronology of longing, by Silvia Unzueta; StereOphocoSoniC, by Foco alAire, directed by Marcela Sánchez Mota and Octavio Zeivy, and Kintsugi, from Tandem Dance Company, by Leticia Alvarado.

He commented that a substantial part is the launch of a national call that will be published at the end of this month, since What matters is getting to know new groups or artists who do not live in Mexico City or its surroundings..

Lavista said that special projects will be carried out, such as the SerSur meeting of Latin American dance, the meeting of Professional Dance Students, and the Nuevas Mexicanidades festival, as well as a broad presence of international dance, the celebration of the International Dance Day, the Solos y Acompañados project, and creative and networking residencies.

“We called the Latin American dance meeting SerSur because it is time to look to the south and understand our reality, not from the hegemony of the north or Europe, but from the logic of the community; to have a vision of the world that is applied and lived from the bodies of the south, that is, ours. This activity will be in November 2025 and in 2026, and we will do another one with Africa.

Claudia Lavista at the presentation of the university program. Photo Gloria Minauro-Isóptica/courtesy of Danza UNAM and María Luisa Severiano

“There will also be a meeting between professional dance students so that the new generations have a place to connect and begin planning projects.

In addition, there will be the New Mexicanities festival, which will bring together groups concerned with the relationship between tradition and the present,” he described.

Lavista highlighted the creation of a Mexican dance platform to identify cities where important dance phenomena are taking place and to generate work networks. In addition, photographic exhibitions of this discipline will be opened and work will be done with the collections of Alberto Dallal Castillo and Raúl Flores Canelo. Dance in Mexico has an incredible richness and we must keep its memory alivehe said.

Regarding the TCUNAM, directed by Irina Marcano, she mentioned that she will continue to spread the legacy of its founder, Gloria Contreras, but will also promote the creation of new classical, neoclassical and contemporary repertoires. Her projects for this year are: 90 times Glory, Tribute to Contreras on his 90th birthday; Carmina Burana at the UNAM Culture Festival and a new version of The Nutcracker. Guest choreographers include Luz Urdaneta from Venezuela, Edgar Zendejas from Monterrey, and Syrian-German Saeed Hani.

She reiterated that the mission of the workshop is to promote the art of movement in university spaces, so activities will continue in the Colleges of Sciences and Humanities, faculties, open rehearsals in gardens and esplanades, in addition to the seasons in the Miguel Covarrubias hall and in the Estefanía Chávez Barragán theater.

On the other hand, the youth company DAJU, directed by Nicolás Poggi and Ana G. Zambrano, maintains the purpose of professionalizing recent graduates through the creation of experimental projects; it will participate in exchanges with local and international universities and will have Jesús Guiraldi and Quille Mut from Argentina as guests.

The Gloria Contreras extraordinary chair, coordinated by Andrea Chirinos and produced by Rocío Gutiérrez, will promote proposals for reflection and analysis of dance from a performative and academic approach through artistic residencies. University cultural circuits, choreography, composition, research and management workshops will be held.

He also reported that the UNAM Dance Workshops program currently brings together more than 3,600 students from the UNAM academic community, as well as workshops in high schools, summer courses and the ProenPro specialization program.