projects.
Since 1994, CatherineMarie Davalos has created a repertory that includes 16 full-evening works and over 78 pieces for the Davalos Dance Company. The following is a selection of those evening works.
For Gloria (2022)
For Gloria is a 30-minute dance theatre work with live music and poetry, created to highlight author Gloria Anzaldúa. Anzaldúa is a Chicana, feminist and queer theory scholar whose work defined the Chicana movement and transformed the dialogue and theory of Third World feminism. For Gloria is a tribute to this pivotal artist and scholar.
Chocolate (2021)
Throughout history, Latin music connects skin color with chocolate, caramels and brown sugar. The lyrics sing of the beautiful brown skin of a woman, including references to her dancing body. Finally, this metaphor is complicated by the invasion of the Spanish to Mexico. The European standards of beauty became prominent and dark skin became a symbol of the savage, the lower class, the uneducated. This work uncovers all of these layers through a fusion of indigenous, folk and contemporary movement with 4 dancers and live music.
Borders, Spaces & Brown Eyes (2019)
Borders, Spaces, and Brown-eyes explores what humans have and do not have in common. The works encompass a multitude of borders and spaces from the safe to the dangerous, the tranquil to the unrestful, the earthly to the heavenly. The text and choreography by Davalos are multilayered works that “speak” to the issues of blending, mixing, contradictions, dissonance, and harmony.
Radical Acts of Love (2018)
Radical Acts of Love is a site-specific dance-theatre work that is a call to action in the midst of hatred and violence. The project creates safe dancing spaces in which interactions for rehearsal and performance become a vehicle for dialogue. The dance is set to poetry and music created and performed by local collaborators and DDC. As an intersectional group of artists, DDC works to question heteronormativity and asks us to examine privilege, power dynamics and social constructs. We seek to partner with others as a catalyst for constructive social change.
Oh the MOON! (2016)
Oh the Moon! is a dance theatre work inspired by our Lunar neighbor with the moon playing the leading role through poetry, music, and dance. The work features 7 dancers and 3 musicians as they amble through the city on a tour of nostalgia and romanticism. The setting is the city of Panicale, Italy with its lovely architecture and winding streets. The dance begins as the sun is setting at the Teatro Caporali and travels through the narrow streets of the city, to the Piazza, and ending in the park.
Volver (2012)
Volver is a dance theatre work that reflects the “Chicano” identity by encompassing a multitude of borders and spaces from the safe to the dangerous. Utilizing multilayered works that “speak” to the issues of blending, mixing, contradictions, dissonance, and harmony. Volver weaves tradition, history, and humor to give expression to the lives and rich contributions of Chicanos.
A Wintry Mix (2012)
This could almost be a survey of the works that Davalos created from 1995-2012 - a kind of greatest-hits album. From rollicking drinking songs to the wistful nostalgia of the Mexican song of farewell "La Golondrina," the mix of pieces evoke a broad range of emotions. Trio in a Box addresses the blame game in racial and immigrant politics, while Queen/Goddess/Bruja comments on the role of powerful women.
Six Questions (2009)
Six Questions is inspired by the music of New Music Composer, Martin Rokeach. The concert celebrates over ten years of collaboration between Rokeach and Davalos. The evening asks six questions about female space and place, partnerships and aging. Dances include 3 premieres: Coda, Terrain, and Queen/Goddess/Witch; plus: Sleepless Night, Storm, and Revised Dido, Clever Queen.
Dreams Suite (2005)
Dreams Suite is a set of four dances that investigate the theme of sleep and dreams. Approximately, 50-minutes long, the dances utilize four 4’x 4’ platforms that initially resemble beds in Bedtime Rituals (2005) and Sleepless Night (2005). The platforms become the walls and a moving floor. The next piece Storm (2005) is a trio made for the Women on the Way Festival and Shatter, Mend, Scatter, Bend (2005) rounds out the complete suite.
Sacral Queens, Latinas, and Dreams (2005)
This evening marked the 10th anniversary of the Davalos Dance Company.
American, but Hyphenated (1996)
American But Hyphenated is based on the
poem "Legal Alien" by Pat Mora which details the struggle of Mexican-Americans to be part of two cultures in the United States and their inability to fit into one or the other. There’s a line in the poem where the author says how she’s a Mexican to Americans and an American to Mexicans and she’s caught between the two cultures, trying to find a place to fit.