The Department of Dance is pleased to share that Alfonso Cervera, Assistant Professor of Dance at The Ohio State University, has been commissioned to create a new choreographic work for Bates College titled Ritmos Antiguo's as part of a two-week creative residency.

Developed in collaboration with Bessie Award–winning sound designer Cody Jensen, Ritmos Antiguo's takes inspiration from the folkloric dance El Venado (The Deer), a story rooted in Yaqui tradition. The work explores ritual and memory through a reimagination of how the body choreographically embodies the venado’s physical language and the simultaneous presence of the hunter.

The choreography is created through Cervera’s experimental movement methodologies, Poc-Chuc, which fuse Ballet Folklórico zapateado and aesthetics with contemporary performance practices to propose a futuristic approach to Folklórico.

Ritmos Antiguo's will be premiered at the American College Dance Association (ACDA), continuing Cervera’s ongoing research of contemporary performance, cultural inheritance, and hybrid movement practices.