MFA Thesis Blurb

Biography

Cuauhtémoc Peranda (Xicano/Aztec and Mescalero Apache) is a choreographer, dancer and scholar from Santa Cruz, CA. His dance training primarily comes from Tezcatlipoca under David Vargas, Tlaloc-Chalchihuitlicue by Elizabeth and Elena Barron, as well as Stanford University and Mills College. His work has been presented around the Bay Area, and he has traveled through the United States, and to Canada and Mexico as a performer. Since the age of 15, Cuauhtémoc has taught traditional Aztec dance to his communities and now continues to teach Aztec dance and give lessons in voguing, modern dance, and winterguard and drum major mace work. He has studied with, and performed in contemporary works, by Ralph Lemon, Rulan Tangen, Ann Carlson, Jane Comfort, Robert Moses, Diane Frank, Aleta Hayes, Parijat Desai, Susie Cashion, Tony Kramer, Sonya Delwaide, Molissa Fenley, Sheldon Smith, and Shnichi Iova-Koga. He has graduated with honors from Stanford University with degrees in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and Dance, and was the 2010 recipient of the Sherifa Omade Edoga Prize for Work Addressing Social Issues. Cuauhtémoc current artistic interest is the examination of Modern Dance’s relationship to the “Native American Indian”, and he is working to create a dance form named: MITOTE—a dance form with the mission to fuse the sacred indigenous tradition of dance and the experimental nature of Modern/Avant-Garde dance. In short, Mitote is the dance of sacred, un-oppressed sharing: the House of light. He is the Artistic Director of his company: Cuauhtémoc Peranda Mitote dance company, and is the Director of Choreography for the Santa Cruz Chamber Ballet.

The Thesis Dances

I make dance, because I need to...I make it with honesty and clear intention. Fierceness is my gift to you. Perhaps I should have had some honey with my tea, but it is delicious nonetheless.

Group Dance

The Preservation of Time {Part 1: Black; and Part 2: Yellow}

This dance, mitote, is centered on an exploration of “TIME”. Part 1, dark, hidden time, slow time, mysterious time, compressed time. Looking at the now, at current time, I cannot help to wonder what the now is comprised of, where it comes from, and what is held within every moment, breathe and cough of time. Part 2, does the same investigation as Part 1, but looks to its opposite or side view. It asks: what is light, revealed, present, fast, “happening” and overloaded time? Looking directly at the now, the present, my joy, I extract from the sweat of time a dance of force and exhilaration.

Solo Dance

Solo No. V

…Lost Grandmother…Cholo get’low…Foundations of Nature… Fideo con Pollo …stillness…legendary…“I want to conjure up a dance, cook something really nice for you”…