Nepantla

Nepantla

Nepantla is a manifestation of border arte. The piece represents the experience of existing in the borderland between two cultures; grappling with embodied memory, lineage, and identidad. It explores what it means to be whole, feel whole, and be seen as whole within Chicanidad.

This piece is the culmination of my creative research during my MFA program at the University of Utah School of Dance. I asked myself: How can I develop a borderland movement practice utilizing Folklórico and modern dance? And how do I negotiate this theoretical, pedagogical, and creative process in a Western concert dance space? Utilizing traditional Folklórico and modern dance techniques, Chicana Feminist methodologies, and decolonial approaches to faldeo, we built a thriving, creative space in the borderlands,

“I have been straddling that Tejas-Mexican border, and others, all my life. It’s not a comfortable territory to live in, this place of contradictions…No, not comfortable but home.” -Gloria Anzaldúa

CREDITS

CHOREOGRAPHY
Roxanne Gray
with collaboration from dancers

PERFORMERS
Leslie Jara
Salanieta Malohifoou
Kiara Saavedra
Masio Sangster
Keily Tafiti
Yolimar Rodríguez Rivera
Em Zinn

LIGHTING
Em Bertelli

MUSIC + SOUND
Daniel Clifton
Roxanne Gray

ZAPATEADO
Zeniff Mejia
Ale Romero

COSTUMES
Sandy Starr
Roxanne Gray

VIDEOGRAPHY
Benjamin Sanders

PHOTOGRAPHY
Joshua Whitehead
Ryan Ross

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED AT
The University of Utah
Graduate Thesis Concert, 2024

SELECTED FOR
American College Dance Associate High-Desert Regional Conference, 2025
University of Wyoming, Laramie

UPCOMING
Excerpts performed at
Nepantla: Border Arte
Curated by Roxanne Gray with 801 Salon
Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, 2025

For access to more footage, please contact me.