Today we’d like to introduce you to Angel Arambula and Henry Torres.
Angel and Henry, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Since Lux Boreal’s inception, the contemporary dance collective has become a vital part of Northern Mexico’s dance movement. We founded the company in 2002 deciding on the name Lux Boreal, which means “Light of the North;” we found our home in the city of Tijuana a year later in the beautiful historic building of Casa de Cultura Tijuana (Tijuana`s House of Culture) in Baja California, México, allowing ourselves to converge in the northwest corner of Mexico, helping us foster and develop a refreshing movement language based on the reality that surrounds our members in the most visited border of the world. Our contemporary dance works have had the honor to show in some of the most prestigious festivals throughout Mexico, the United States and abroad.
We began our alliances with San Diego’s dance scene the same year we arrived in Tijuana. Allison Green was our first and has continued to be one of the greatest supporters in our relationships with artists from the United States. After many collaborations with artists in San Diego County throughout the years, we were honored with the Arts Angel Award from La Jolla Symphony and Chorus in 2018, strengthening ties of international collaboration and creating dialogues that benefit arts and culture in communities on both sides of the border, working together to create bridges, not walls.
As an active participant in Mexican culture, we are fortunate to receive support for the company’s continued creativity, performances, community work, and educational endeavors from the National Fund for Culture and Arts – Mexico en Escena, since 2007.
International collaborations with creators of different cultures has enriched the journey of our collective, LAMB from Philip Adams (Australia) took the company to another level of dramatic interpretation with lots of challenges along the way in the two year creative process with the help and support of Australia Latin America Foundation and the Mexican Festival FMX, Fit MisFit a collaboration with The Iseli Chiodi Dance Company (Ireland) reinforced our vision of collaborating with artist from all different walks of life to communicate through movement.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Some of the challenges we`ve faced are keeping the public close to the arts, especially those with heightened interest and/or curiosity in contemporary dance. As performing artists, we compete with many other entertainment options that through media such as cinema, streaming and technology, capture the attention of ordinary citizens. It has been a formidable task to make the experience of seeing live performing arts something unique and unrepeatable for all the value it implies.
Another important challenge has been to foster the evolution and growth of our company members. Over our 17 years as a company we have reflected, grown, and discovered the remarkable individuals we have in our dancing family; and with each individual brings new interests, desires and needs. We try to find the best way possible to motivate their growth and pursue their artistic interests that contribute to the great artistic hub that is Lux Boreal, however, time is one of our biggest constraints. We wish we had more time to nurture each creative process however we must complete deadlines and conditions put on the company due to institutions, grants, financial obligations, etc.
Tell us about your company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
We seek to use dance as a means of generating new ideas and transforming an ordinary environment into something extraordinary. In addition to various theatrical venues that pervade the country, Lux Boreal often performs in the streets, parks, shopping centers, and other public areas. Our mission is to not only make art but to bring dance and its creative forms to as many people as possible. Our movement explores a vast range of concepts always pushing to provide audience members a chance to reflect and take away something new. Our company enhances and impacts both Mexican and American culture, especially playing such an active role in a bi-national artistic relationship with dance communities on both sides of the border enabling a constant cultural exchange between dancers in California and those in México.
The company has presented tours all across México and in many different countries such as Chile, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, United States, Brazil, France, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Puerto Rico, Rumania, Sweden and Latvia.
Centro de Danza y ProducciónEscénica de Baja California (The Center of Dance and Scenic Production of Baja California) is aimed at dancers and scenic performers to grow under a system of training and technical strengthening, developing creative skills, as well as tools oriented to the management, development and production of artistic projects. Lux Boreal seeks to transmit its work philosophy through this pedagogical artistic program whose mission is to develop leaders in the artistic and scenic field; ten generations of artists have graduated from the program are already an active part of the Mexican and international dance movement.
The 4X4 Movement, in 2008SUSHI Performing and Visual Art Center, invited us to perform and curate a special Tijuana Artist Night at The Blue Foot Bar in San Diego in a 4X4 stage concept, later that year aiming to incite the development of performing arts and trigger the general public with regards to dance and related disciplines, The 4×4 TJ Night choreography contest for contemporary dance was created and has been held in Tijuana since 2012.
4×4 TJ Night takes dance off the proscenium stage and into the center of the room for a vibrant, immediate experience. It is a format that encourages the creation of a choreographic work in a limited space, hence the root of its name. The event has convened choreographers with extensive experience, as well as emerging creators, from around the world. Performed in bars and nontraditional spaces, 4X4 is a space where art, innovation, research and healthy competition coexists and converges.
More than 500 artists from around the globe have been a part of the 4X4 choreography contest, creators, dancers, actors, musicians of diverse backgrounds, emerging and consolidated creators from Mexico, United States, Colombia, France, Spain, Berlin, Edinburgh, Italy, and Spain; who have found in this contest the ideal platform to exhibit art of Avant-garde and forceful proposals that have invited reflection, revaluation and greater dance acceptance; contributing to the creation of audiences, and the development of new generations of audiences for contemporary dance, since its creation the contest has attracted more than 12,000 in live audience and more than double through live streaming.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
We strive to shine as a dance company as we transform our reality with our performances and convey messages that expose more than simple universal truths. We seek our shows to be captivating, thought provoking and insightful.
Contact Info:
- Address: Casa de la Cultura de Tijuana (Tijuana`s House of Culture)
Avenida París y, Lisboa 5, Colonia Centro, CP 22054
Tijuana, B.C., México - Website: https://www.luxboreal.org/
- Phone: (52) (664) 193 18 80
- Email: luxboreal@gmail.com luxborealinfo@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luxboreal/?hl=es
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuxBorealOficial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/luxboreal?lang=es
Image Credit:
Lux Boreal: images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Carla Alcántara Photography: images 9 and 10
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