Eventos
Danzantes del Alba, Teatro Línea de Sombra
Sunday, December 3, 2023 | 3PM, 7PM EST
Skirball Auditorium, 566 LaGuardia Pl
The Hemispheric Institute welcomes Teatro Línea de Sombra (TLS), one of Mexico’s leading theater companies, to New York University in December 2023.
Teatro Línea de Sombra is an internationally renowned collective of theatermakers, researchers, and actors. The company produces theatrical pieces, exhibitions, and other performance experiences. TLS was founded in Mexico in 1993. As Mellon Artists in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute, TLS Directors Jorge A. Vargas and Alicia Laguna are also developing their collection for the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL).
Danzantes del Alba/Dancers of the Dawn is a theatrical movement piece that celebrates the resilience of workers who travel the migrant route from Central America to Mexico. The piece began as a carnival in a small town in Mexico along the migratory route from Central America. Danzantes/Dancers opens with spectators standing on stage in three concentric circles, where they encounter 36 colorful costumes. Dancers bring the costumes to life as a documentary is projected behind the dancing. A narrator tells the stories of the workers and artisans who made the costumes, laboring in small textile cooperatives, living rooms, shelters, and community centers along the migrant trail. As part of the New York production, the company will cast local immigrant dancers to join the production, prioritizing the embodied life histories of immigrant experiences as integral to the performance.
On December 3, 2023, Teatro Línea de Sombra will present two performances of Danzantes del Alba/Dancers of the Dawn at the NYU Skirball Center, at 3 and 7pm.
Danzantes del Alba is a co-production of Teatro UNAM and the Festival Internacional Cervantino.
Research and dramaturgical text: Rodrigo Parrini.
Stage director: Jorge A. Vargas.
This event is co-presented by Hemispheric Encounters.
Bios
Teatro Línea de Sombra
Founded in Mexico in 1993, and under the direction of Jorge A. Vargas and Alicia Laguna (2023 Mellon Artists in Residence at the Institute), TLS is a collective of theatermakers, teachers, researchers, and actors who collaborate with musicians, set designers, visual artists, and other creators to produce theatrical pieces, exhibitions, and other experiences depending on where their investigations lead. Research, pedagogy, and site-specific interventions are central to their practice.
Alicia Laguna
Alicia Laguna has been artistic co-director of Teatro Línea de Sombra since 1993. She is a performing artist, manager, producer, and curator, trained at the University of Nuevo León. With Teatro Línea de Sombra, she has produced plays that speak to the contexts of Mexico's social and political reality. Among them are Amarillo, Baños Roma, Pequeños Territorios en Reconstrucción, Filo de Caballos, Artículo 13, and Danzantes del Alba.
Over the past seven years, she has collaborated on the design and production of "Amarillo en la ruta migrante," which has brought this work to migrant shelters throughout Mexico.
During her residency, she will collaborate on the curation of the Teatro Línea de Sombra Collection in the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL), and will participate in the presentation of Danzantes del Alba at NYU Skirball and the symposium “Stages in Movement: Teatro Línea de Sombra on the Migrant Trail.”
Learn more about Alicia Laguna here.
Jorge A. Vargas
Jorge A. Vargas is stage director, co-founder, and artistic co-director of Teatro Línea de Sombra. He studied at the École du Mime Corporel in Paris and has directed more than 50 stage plays.
Since 2009 his projects have been oriented towards research-based theater and critical realism of a collaborative and transversal nature. Over the course of 20 years, he has developed the visual and embodied dramaturgy that is visible in plays such as Galería de moribundos, La oscura raíz, La mirada sorprendida, El síndrome de ulises, La forma que se despliega, and Amarillo.
Vargas's activities as a creator have been linked to his teaching practice. His productions have participated in festivals and in have been presented in some of the most important theaters in Europe, Asia, and America. On two occasions, has received the award for Best "Research" Theater (Teatro de Búsqueda) Director, and is a member of Mexico's National System of Art Creators.
During his residency, he will collaborate on the curation of the Teatro Línea de Sombra Collection in the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL), and will participate in the presentation of Danzantes del Alba at NYU Skirball and the symposium “Stages in Movement: Teatro Línea de Sombra on the Migrant Trail."
Learn more about Jorge A. Vargas here.
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