Cuauhtémoc Peranda – Dance
I Love You
This dance was for a man I loved very dear. Between us, there was an abusive use of emotions, time, situation, and love….but there was always love and appreciation. I have always wanted to make a love dance, since there are so many love songs–a love dance, I feel, is somewhat rare. Most dances are about love, or loss, but an actual love dance…a statement of “I Love You,” through dance, this was something I needed to make. From the memories of this man, the love, the hate, the crying the escape, the twist and final release of bounds this work comes forth. The Conch Shell being the calling voice, the scarf being the bind to be released, only once he who is in love has danced. This dance was made of movements deep between the two lovers… ended the dance, the echo lingers in the witness..
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Cuauhtémoc Peranda (Xicano/Aztec and Mescalero Apache) is a choreographer, dancer and scholar from Santa Cruz, CA. His dance training primarily comes from Tezcatlipoca under David Vargas, Tlaloc-Chalchihuitlicue by Elizabeth and Elena Barron, as well as Stanford University and Mills College. His work has been presented around the Bay Area, and he has traveled through the United States, and to Canada and Mexico as a performer. Since the age of 15, Cuauhtémoc has taught traditional Aztec dance to his communities and now continues to teach Aztec dance and give lessons in voguing, modern dance, and winterguard and drum major mace work. He has studied with, and performed in contemporary works, by Ralph Lemon, Rulan Tangen, Ann Carlson, Jane Comfort, Robert Moses, Diane Frank, Aleta Hayes, Parijat Desai, Susie Cashion, Tony Kramer, Sonya Delwaide, Molissa Fenley, Sheldon Smith, and Shnichi Iova-Koga. He has graduated with honors from Stanford University with degrees in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and Dance, and was the 2010 recipient of the Sherifa Omade Edoga Prize for Work Addressing Social Issues. Cuauhtémoc current artistic interest is the examination of Modern Dance’s relationship to the “Native American Indian”, and he is working to create a dance form named: MITOTE—a dance form with the mission to fuse the sacred indigenous tradition of dance and the experimental nature of Modern/Avant-Garde dance. In short, Mitote is the dance of sacred, un-oppressed sharing: the House of light. He is the Artistic Director of his company: Cuauhtemoc Mitote Dance Company.
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