Safos Dance Theatre
Safos current projects include Dance in the Desert, Las Fronterizas, and Stories from Home. Stories from Home is available for booking. We offer residencies, workshops, master classes and performances.
Category: 501(c) 3 Organization
Discipline: Dance
Program Affiliations: Arts Foundation Grantees
About Safos Dance Theatre
Safos Dance Theatre is a small non-profit dance company founded in Tucson, AZ in 2009. We collaborate with other Latina/o/e/x serving and AZ-based organizations to offer programs that fulfill our mission.
Yvonne Montoya
Preferred Pronouns: she/her
yvonne@yvonnemontoya.co
520-481-1656
https://www.safosdance.org/
Yvonne Montoya teaching at Dance in the Desert 2022
Dance in the Desert
Dance in the Desert: A Gathering of Latinx Dancemakers was founded in 2017 by Yvonne Montoya.
The goal of Dance in the Desert is to support and uplift Latinx dance artists in Arizona and beyond. Since 2018, Dance in the Desert gathered Latinx dancemakers from Tucson, Phoenix, and Douglas, AZ for a series of research initiatives, master classes, professional development workshops, and to support the incubation of new dances. Dance in the Desert centers local dance makers while investing in our own communities.
Safos Dance Theatre, Liz Lerman LLC, and Erin Donohue are ongoing project partners who have been working on the initiative since its inception. Yvonne continues to be a co-organizer and co-administrator on the project.
DITD addresses systemic deficits in dance in the Southwest by providing a space that redresses geographic isolation and centers local expertise.
Mis Amore Fronterizos - March 12, 2022 Event Documentation
Mis Amores Fronterizos
On March 28, 2020, performing and visual artists from both sides of the US/Mexico border will present “Mis Amores Fronterizos,” the product of a twelve-month collaborative, community-engaged research and exploration process.
Las Fronterizas Ensemble is made up of 6 youth and adult artists from Sonora and Arizona. Their year-long collaboration builds upon relationships established through the Binational Arts Residency with dance companies convened in 2018.
Over the past twelve months, the ensemble has conducted over 50 community story circles, interviews, and workshops, engaging an expansive network of community members of all ages on both sides of the fence. “Mis Amores Fronterizos,” represents the culmination of this process. Co-created by community members who participated in the ensemble’s workshops, the production features creative interpretation of local narratives through dance, theatre, and visual arts. Ensemble artists will perform alongside their community partners in a shared effort to center stories of love that move and dissolve literal and figurative borders.
Project partners include Border Arts Corridor, Rising Youth Theatre, Safos Dance Theatre, Bibi Danceur Academy, Casa de la Cultura Agua Prieta, Ballet Ángeles de Agua Prieta, and Aztlan. Support for this project has been provided by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, an agency of the State of Arizona, and National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC).
Choreography by Yvonne Montoya, Animation by Wesley Fawcett Creigh
Stories From Home Sizzle Reel
Stories from Home is a series of dances embodying oral traditions of Latinx communities in the American Southwest. Choreographer Yvonne Montoya and an all-Latinx cast of dancers draw upon personal histories and ancestral knowledge, including stories from Montoya’s family members. Montoya, a 23rd-generation Nuevomexicana, began to develop Stories from Home after her father’s passing in 2015; compelled to continue his storytelling tradition for her own child, she turned to dance. Stories From Home is a vessel for personal and specific tales. The work explores how geographies, languages, and histories among Latinx and border communities have shared histories and experiences.
