[Off the Beaten Path: A Jazz & Tap Odyssey] [Delfos Contemporary Dance] [Ballet X] [Robert Michaels] [Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Co.] [Nikolais Dance Theatre] [Quasar Cie De Danca] [Rhythm in Shoes] [Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company] [Michael Bashaw's Theatre of Sound] [Teatro De Ciertos Habitantes]

Delfos Contemporary Dance

Delfos Contemporary Dance was founded in 1992 by the Mexican choreographers and dancers Victor Manuel Ruiz and Claudia Lavista with the objective of opening a space for creation, exchanges, professional training and communication through contemporary dance.

Delfos is a laboratory of images and emotions in movement arising from the creation of work that comes from introspection. Its purpose is not to approach dance as an illustrative event but rather to arrive at an intimacy with this everyday art and to discover hidden worlds that can spring up inside the same dance.

The aesthetic vision of the members has given the company a unique personality characterized by the fluency, physicality and poetry contained in each one of their works. The company has staged all its work with this trait in mind, whether it is choreography for the general public, projects for children, co-productions with other dance companies or stagings for opera, television and video.

Delfos' work has been praised by critics and presented in Canada, the USA, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Greece, Korea, Colombia, Venezuela, Panamá, México and Bolivia. Selected awards include: The Mexican National Dance Award in 1992, 1997 and 2002, the Award as The Best Dance Company in Mexico by the Critics Union, the Artistic Merit Award in Brazil, and several fellowships from the Mexican National Endowment for the Arts, among others.

Delfos has been selected to tour to U.S. communities in the Fall of 2004 with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts in association with the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.

Since 1998, Delfos Contemporary Dance has run the Mazatlan Professional School of Dance. Today Delfos is recognized as one of the most important contemporary dance companies of Latin America. Its home base is the Angela Peralta Theater in Mazatlán, Mexico. Delfos is also a hub site for the Web of Cultural Promoters of Latin America and the Caribbean.

"DELFOS is now moving into the highest levels of contemporary dance in Mexico and Latin America ... "  Proceso Magazine, Rosario Manzanos

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S BIO

Claudia Lavista

Dancer, choreographer and teacher, she has been involved in arts since the age of eigth years. She studied at the National System for the Professional Teaching of Dance and with Federico Castro in Mexico.

In 1987 she joined the company U, X. Onodanza and later danced with the company Danzahoy in Venezuela for 5 years.

In 1992 she founded DELFOS Contemporary Dance along with Victor Ruiz. Since the beggining of her carrer she has received many awards for her outstanding artistic works such as Best Female Dancer in 1998 and 2002, the National Dance Award 1992 and through the National and the State Foundations of Culture and Arts was honored with several fellowships.

2008-2009 TOURING PROGRAMS:

Brief Instants (Breves instantes): A dynamic program comprised by six pieces  selected from the current Delfos 13-piece repertoire.  Each dance is selected according to the overall context, available space, and the specific needs of the venue where the company is performing.  Each of the six works is like a poem of movement; when "read" together a puzzle of emotional pulsations is created.  Audience members are taken on a journey of contemporary human reflection and discovery.

"Breves Instantes is a show that engaged the audience by its visual components, colorfulness, and spectacle."

La Crónica de León. León, España

"Eclipse" (Eclipse):  Six characters who discover their intimacy and secrets in a world filled with suggestive and emotional images that delve into the theme of privacy and the parallel worlds that every human being lives daily.

"A dance piece that makes you give your senses away…full of magic, Delfos has put forward all the ideas, movements, and sensibilities."

Noroeste, Mazatlán, Sinaloa.

"In Memoriam" is a program consisting of three works that focus on death.  Using different literary texts that go in depth on this theme, it deals with the attempt to discover the mysteries and approximations of man through time as he tries to cope with the end of life and the beginning of something unknown.

"In Memoriam, from Delfos Contemporary Dance, is the best national contemporary dance show in recent  years."

Revista Proceso. México

Family Program:

"Somewhere" (En Algún Lugar) is a show for both children and families that combines dance, puppetry and shadow theater to portray the reality of street children in Mexico and Latin America.  Somehow we experience the vision of those who suffer this social phenomenon and who live daily, reinventing a magical universe through their imagination and creativity.

" Delfos has created an idilic, energetic, touching, and visually atractive proposal.  A first-class work!".

Noroeste, Mazatlán, Sinaloa

RESIDENCY ACTIVITIES:

The company offers a program of activities in residence during its tours that include:

• Post Performance Discussion
• Master Classes, Advanced Mixed Technique classes (the technique utilized by the dancers of the company):
  • Mixed technique: One of the chief characteristics of this course is the development and use of fluid movement from a synthesis of basic principles like pelvic use, attack of motion, dominance of floor work, suspension, fall, recuperation, weight and phrasing. The combination of these elements permit the dancer to have a better concept of space and of the infinite possibilities of movement inside itself.
  • Contemporary Jazz: The dynamic work of Jazz gives to any dancer a better physical performance with respect to speed, attack, spin, suspension, shifting weight and use of rhythm and sensuality. It also works the skeleton and the musculature in a compact form, working up a fluid language of expression without stereotypes and using technique, risk and virtuosity.
  • Choreography (creative development): In the choreographic search of Delfos, the direct relation with other arts like painting, poetry and music has been fundamental. They are taken as reference point to find not only a language but also an aesthetic and an atmosphere. In this class we want to share with the dancers and choreographers the form in which we have worked during the last several years, thereby affording them choreographic elements that without doubt will be of great help within their own creative work.
• Open educational rehearsals
• Meetings with the community to establish dialogue about different realities of contemporary dance between Mexico and the country being visited
• Short and informal presentations in non-conventional spaces
• Activities designed for a particular community
• Lecture / Demonstration
• Artistic Collaborations (6 days residency as minimum):
  • Delfos Contemporary Dance is interested in participating with other companies and choreographers in artistic exchanges. These collaborative projects serve to enrich, starting with experimentation and creative dialogue.
  • Delfos has launched projects in collaboration with diverse artists and companies including:
  • The Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers and O`Vertigo of Canada
  • Venezuelan companies Dramo, Agente Libre and The Choreographic Experimental
• One week workshops

Nutrition for dancers: This course is for dancers at all levels and all people related directly to dance. The principal objective is to break with out-dated nutritional paradigms and to introduce the student to a new conception of food and its hormonal effect. The application of a particular nutritional program has many beneficial results such as: loss of body fat, increase of muscular mass, an increase in energy, a reduction of pain in the joints and muscles, bio-chemical help for the recovery from injuries, a better sleep cycle and better physical performance, among others.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION: