Choreographer Lidya Romero celebrates 50 years of career today at Bellas Artes.
Choreographer Lidya Romero celebrates 50 years of career today at Bellas Artes.
▲ He will premiere the plays "Free Shepherding" and "Shanghai Moon" with his company "El Cuerpo Mutable" / Teatro de Movimiento. Photo by Emanuel Adamez
Fabiola Palapa Quijas
La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, July 19, 2025, p. 3
With a career spanning five decades, Lidya Romero has become a leading figure in Mexican contemporary dance. Her passion for this discipline has led her to create more than 70 choreographies whose distinctive signature is their language and themes centered around the city, femininity, memory, and interpersonal relationships.
The choreographer, dancer, professor, and researcher will celebrate 50 years of career today with a special performance at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, where she will premiere the works Libre pastoreo and Luna de Shanghai with her company El Cuerpo Mutable/ Teatro de Movimiento.
In an interview with La Jornada, Romero reflected on his career, his style and approach to dance, as well as his vision for the future of this art form.
Fifty years ago, the creator debuted at the country's premier cultural venue with Guillermina Bravo's Interacción y recomienzo, set to music from Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Since then, she has enjoyed a prolific career and has collaborated with choreographers such as Luis Fandiño, Miguel Ángel Palmeros, Rosa Romero, Eva Zapte, and Jorge Domínguez, among others.
Romero was a member of the National Ballet of Mexico and the Forion Ensemble. She also served as Head of Dance at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Deputy Director of Dance and National Dance Coordinator at the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal), Coordinator of the Morelos Choreographic Production Center, and Director of the Academy of Mexican Dance.
All of this speaks to the craft of being a dancer and choreographer, but I also had the opportunity to be on the other side of the desk, generating projects that contributed to the development of the discipline; so it's been a very productive five decades
, she said.
In his works, Romero seeks to reflect human strength, exploring the complexity and duality of life. "The depth of the human soul fascinates me, and all this chiaroscuro that not everything in life is bright or positive, but there's always this ambivalence
," he stated.
With a 50-year career, the maestro is an example of dedication and passion for dance. Her work and legacy continue to inspire new generations of dancers and choreographers. Dance is a language I chose from an early age; I am in this world as an apprentice, then as an interpreter for other choreographers, and later as the creator of my pieces. The language of dance allows me to speak about the topics that interest me with breadth and generosity
, added the director of El Cuerpo Mutable.
She also considered that the choreographic discourse must be clear, legible, and compelling so that the audience can understand it clearly and complement it with her story. She reiterated that dance has generously
allowed her to address themes that interest her: everyday life, femininity, the world of memories, and interpersonal relationships.
To celebrate her anniversary with the company she founded in 1982, the maestro will premiere " Shanghai Moon" in the marble hall, in which she explores her fascination with the Far East and Japanese culture. "I've been working on the piece for several years, and it deals with intrigue, decadence, human relationships, and the blossoming of sensuality in adolescence
," she explains.
The work "Libre Pastoreo," also by Romero, celebrates the careers of friends and colleagues in dance. The great legends who will reunite tonight at Bellas Artes are María Elena Anaya, Mirta Blostein, Miguel Ángel Palmeros, Elisa Rodríguez, Orlando Scheker, and Coral Zayas.
For Romero, sharing knowledge and experiences in the field of dance, both in schools and in forums with the public, has been enriching. Dance is a living art that requires the presence of the artist, the stage designer, and the audience. We must activate that relationship, that dialogue with the audience, to understand what they are looking for in a performance. Art is essential for making us more human
.
Mutable Body/Movement Theater, directed by Lidya Romero, will perform today at 7 p.m. at the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Juárez and Lázaro Cárdenas Central Area), as part of the Diverse Dances, Diverse Bodies season, organized by the National Dance Coordination of INBAL.
From the Editorial Staff
La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, July 19, 2025, p. 3
Academic, researcher, and professor Patrick Johansson was honored yesterday with the 2025 Alfonso Reyes International Prize, awarded by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal), the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, and the International Alfonsina Society.
According to a statement from Inbal, the jury – composed of Angelina Muñiz-Huberman, Beatriz Saavedra Gastélum and Víctor Barrera Enderle – recognized the author of Alfonso Reyes and the Indigenous World for the breadth of his career, the solidity of his humanistic work, the important exploration and dissemination of the pre-Hispanic world, and his outstanding work as an academic, researcher and professor of the Nahuatl language
.
The record that Johansson's work represents, without a doubt, a continuation and an amplification of the great Alfonsine legacy
.
The 2025 Alfonso Reyes International Award consists of recognition and a financial incentive. The awards ceremony will be held in November.
Of French origin and naturalized Mexican, for Patrick Johansson (Rouen, 1946), obtaining this award represents something extraordinary
; in his words, it is like a Nobel Prize
.
He thanked the jury for this distinction as a passionate fan of the literature of Alfonso Reyes, whom he considers the best Mexican writer and one of the greatest in world literature.
Johansson holds a bachelor's degree in literature and a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Bordeaux, and a doctorate in literature from the University of Paris-Sorbonne.
He was a student of the Mexican historian and philosopher Miguel León-Portilla (1926-2019), whom he has publicly recognized as a key figure and influence in his training and career.
In 1992, he began collaborating with the Graduate Studies Division of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and in 1993 with the Institute of Historical Research, both at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
He is the author of works such as Celebrations, Propitiatory Rites and Pre-Hispanic Rituals (1992); Ángel María Garibay K. The Wheel and the River (1993 and 2013), co-authored with Miguel León-Portilla; Ahnelhuayoxóchitl: Flower without Roots (1993); Pre-Columbian Nahuatl Mortuary Rites (1998), and Spanish and Nahuatl (2020).
He joined the Mexican Academy of Language in 2010; he has been a member of the Royal Spanish Academy since October of that year; and in 2014, he received the Eustaquio Buelna Chair of Linguistics from El Colegio de Sinaloa, among other awards.
The best of NY dance on one stage
▲ Five of New York City’s most iconic dance companies—Ballet Hispanico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem—will unite on stage from July 29 to August 2 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater. American Ballet Theatre dancer Gillian Murphy (pictured) performs Jerome Robbins’ Other Dances during the festival’s third edition. In this iteration, the company will offer Midnight Pas de Deux, an introspective and poetic duet set to the adagio from Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor, with choreography by American Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Susan Jaffe. Photo Ap
La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, July 19, 2025, p. 3
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