Photos by Skye Schmidt

agave americana

Agave Americana is a contemporary dance work that explores cultural aspects of Ordaz's personal narrative and local identity. The title symbolically represents Mexican-American femininity and becomes a story of six females with influx characterizations. The story poetically takes 'space and place' in the desert landscape of the American Southwest asking: How do bodies form attachments to home, community, and nation? Is our sense of place affected by time? This perceptional journey of ethnic identity taking shape is embodied and supported with live music that features guitar, cajone, and wood flute sounds intermixed with harmonic progressions, inspired by the themes found in Mexican folk music 'Son Mexicano' from Michoacan, Mexico. Lighting creates a mystical desert world, where all types of magic are possible, even time travel.
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Lighting Design: Morgan Embry​
Choreography: Andrea Ordaz
Sound Design and Live Performance: Andrew Tarr
Set Design: Anna Laleggio
​Stage Management: Samantha Sorin
2019