La Jornada: Devoting yourself to choreography in Mexico is almost militancy: Raúl Tamez

Raúl Tamez, choreographer and co-founder of La Infinita Compañía along with Rodrigo González, believes that the key to promoting the appreciation of contemporary dance is to make it accessible to the entire public. “You have to think about new audiences and create works that interest them,” he shares in an interview.

The Infinita Compañía has managed to attract a broader and more diverse audience, with works such as Mozart’s Requiem, Madame Butterfly, Anonymous, The Black Swan y Dracula, which have been presented in spaces such as the Hellenic Cultural Institute, the Chapultepec Castle and the main hall of the Palace of Fine Arts.

Tamez, who for more than 20 years has dedicated himself to innovating and promoting dance art in Mexico, comments that “la Infinita has generated platforms that have given a new light to contemporary dance, because we work with titles of existing narratives and transpose them to contemporary dance; then, phenomena occur such as having performances of a thousand people and working in spaces such as La Capilla Gótica or Chapultepec Castle.

“Many of the performances that we have presented at the Palace of Fine Arts have had audience levels that have not been seen in contemporary dance since the days of Ballet Teatro del Espacio. It is important that dance makers think about new audiences.”

The dancer and choreographer believes that dance can be a catalyst for reflection and change. with his work Black flowers for Violet He obtained the Guillermo Arriaga National Dance Award, in the category of Consolidated Career.

In the choreography she addresses gender violence and the figure of Violeta Parra through images of a wake, childhood, an androgynous body and symbolic cages.

She clarified that the piece is not an apology for violence, but quite the opposite: it raises the female struggle in different times. “It is a conceptual and timeless commitment with high moments in terms of feminism, in which the voice of women who fight for their rights and to eliminate machismo is important.”

Tamez commented that her piece caused controversy because the genders were reversed, with male dancers playing female roles and vice versa. “This has a deeper meaning; the fundamental thing that must be considered is the violence towards women due to everything we are experiencing, but there is also violence towards the masculine and it is a double-edged question; on the other hand there is a whole new conception of gender and ways of living the feminine or masculine within ourselves.”

For the creator, it has been essential to “search for language in one’s own identity, in the heart, in the origins, and understand the complexity of the root, where it comes from, speaking from oneself.”

He recommended that the new choreographers “fight a lot, because you have to climb many steps, because dedicating yourself to choreography in Mexico is almost a militancy: the choreographer produces his works, edits his music and also becomes a cultural manager, because there is no apparatus that sustains the choreographic activity, so we must cultivate other skills.”

Raúl Tamez said that he has exciting plans, such as presentations of Black flowers for Violet at the Warsaw theater in 2026.

His passion and dedication to contemporary dance are an inspiration for those seeking to innovate and promote this genre. On an international level he has been invited to create works for the Limon Dance Company.