Calpulli Mexican Dance Company is one of New York City’s leading Mexican folkloric dance companies. A “calpulli” is a traditional Mixteca (Aztec) community. Calpulli is a community that gets students dancing like professionals with world-class stagecraft and storytelling. It is as good as anything on Broadway. Really!
Calpulli Mexican Dance Company in New York City
Mott Haven, The Bronx
“Día de Muertos,” by Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, brings the Mexican family tradition to life; at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx; on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 8pm, and Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 3pm. From $25 🇲🇽
New Rochelle, New York
Calpulli Mexican Dance Company dances a special educational performance of excerpts from “Puebla: The Story of Cinco de Mayo;” at the New Rochelle Public Library, in New Rochelle, New York; on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 6:30pm. FREE with rsvp. newrochelle.librarycalendar.com 🇲🇽 🇲🇽 🇲🇽
Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Calpulli Mexican Dance Company celebrates Cinco de Mayo with Calpulli Community Students presenting the traditional music and dances of Mexico; at the Brooklyn Public Library Main Branch in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn; on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 1pm. FREE. 🇲🇽 🇲🇽 🇲🇽
New York City Venues
- Count Basie Theatre in Redbank, New Jersey.
- Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx.
- Javits Center at Hudson Yards, Manhattan.
- Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens.
- The Town Hall in Midtown, Manhattan.
Calpulli Mexican Dance Company
Calpulli has a touring company; dance, music, and costume design programs; and teaching artists who do community outreach across Metro New York. The company was founded in New York City in 2003.
Musical Director George Saenz is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, which produces an endless stream of successful jazz and Latin music stars.
Executive Director and Co-Founder Juan Castaño has built an impressive community arts organization.
Artistic Director Grisel Pren Monje gets community dancers to perform like professionals by mixing classical ballet and Mexican folk dance technique. A classical ballerina told us that Calpulli dancers perform like professional ballet dancers. Grisel is the heart of the company.
Director of Arts-in-Education and Co-Founder Alberto Lopez Herrera has been named one of Time Magazine’s great “American Voices.” He is a world-class storyteller.
Repertory
Calpulli Mexican Dance Company has an extensive repertoire of many forms of Mexican and Mexican American culture. They are great teaching artists.
- “Cinco de Mayo Story” tells the story of why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo through Indigenous and folkloric dance.
- “Monarcas” celebrates the contributions Mexican immigrants make to the culture and prosperity of the United States.
- “Navidad: A Mexican American Christmas” is a Mexican nutcracker told through the eyes of an immigrant child who wonders whether she should celebrate Christmas through her family’s Mexican heritage, or in the American traditions of the United States.
Día de Muertos
The show is a love story that spans the boundary between the living and the departed. A loving couple falls victim to treachery and is separated, seemingly forever. The young woman enters Mictlán – the underworld of Aztec mythology – where the mesmerizing Catrina reigns as queen. But nothing gets in between true love.
Folkloric and classical music mix with vibrant dances, colorful costumes, makeup and beautiful set pieces to bring this beautiful love story to life. By the way, Mictlán is not the European hell. As in many Indigenous and African traditions, it is a paradise.
We saw the World Premiere at The Town Hall. Calpulli Mexican Dance Company is a community dance company, yet the production is Broadway-quality in every dimension. How they achieve this level of excellence with community artists and just a few professionals, is some kind of New York miracle. It’s a tribute to recently promoted Artistic Director Grisel Pren Monje.
Aztec and Mayan Traditions
Aztec and Maya traditions, in fact many ancient traditions around the world, practice ancestral veneration, and see life and death as two sides of the same coin. So the people don’t fear death.
Skull Catrina la Calavera Garbancera, the icon of the Day of the Dead, is a modern representation of Mictlancihuatl, the Aztec goddess of the underworld. She guards the bones of the dead, but there is nothing scary about her. We love her because every morning, she swallows the stars to make the day.
The Aztec celebration was a late summer festival. Colonial Spanish priests moved the festival to their own All Souls Day. Both traditions see these days as a time when the boundaries between the living and the dead are loosened. The departed can cross back over and visit, but only come if you invite them. That’s why we make ofrendas (family altars) for our deceased loved ones. The ofrenda is the invitation.
European Traditions
In classical European literature, Calpulli’s “Día de los Muertos” is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, although sort of in reverse. That makes sense partly because Aztec/Mayan and European concepts of the underworld are reversed. European tradition fears death and sees the underworld as some kind of hell. In Mexican Aztec tradition, death is reality and life is just a dream. The Aztec underworld is the equivalent of European heaven. We don’t fear death. It is the one universal experience in life.
Orpheus is the ancient Greek god of poetry and music. When his wife died, Orpheus missed her so much that he entered the underworld to find her. The boss of the underworld agreed to let her return, but only for half the year. When she is gone, Orpheus mourns and we face the cold sorrows of fall and winter. When Eurydice returns we experience the warm joys of spring and summer.
So happy Día de Muertos. On the Day of the Dead, may you always be remembered!
There is more repertoire at calpullidance.org
Information
Facebook @calpullimexicandance
Instagram @calpullimexicandance
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