A dancer strikes a dramatic pose with arms raised on a dimly lit stage, wearing a vibrant costume of black, red, and beige, surrounded by flowing fabric that enhances the sense of motion and cultural expression.

Choreographing Chicana Stories for 30 Years

CatherineMarie Davalos, director of Davalos Dance Company in the Bay Area, celebrates her 30th anniversary by looking back on 30 years of making dances about the Chicana experience and how the dance landscape has changed over that time.

September 29, 2025  |  Read Article

Liz sits in the sand wearing a blue outfit with her skin painted blue. A desert scene is behind her.

Radical Aesthetics and the Winds of Change

Liz Duran Boubion, director/choreographer of Piñata Dance Collective and director of the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers in the Bay Area, meditates on how a residency in the Sonoran desert influenced her thoughts on death and political change.

April 10, 2023  |  Read Article

The Credibility and Accessibility of Professional Dance

LIZ DURAN BOUBION is the artistic director of Piñata Dance Collective and co-director of ¡FLACC! Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers. Here, she reflects on the dance ecosystem and its multiple biases when it comes to professional dance. Her responses are part of a larger series dissecting what it means […]

February 15, 2018  |  Read Article

A Voice of Social Activism

An Interview with Cathy Davalos BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT Cathy Davalos is a Chicana choreographer and professor of dance at Saint Mary’s College of California in the San Francisco Bay Area. As part of a special dialogue in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, she reflects on why her identity as […]

October 9, 2017  |  Read Article

Is That What I Am Holding?

Happy National Poetry Month from Stance on Dance! BY CATHERINE MARIE DAVALOS; ILLUSTRATION BY CAMILLE TAFT My back has been watched, the hipbone hurting for six episodes. I keep finding places, new palettes of expression to nothing. I turn, a different person, older, tired. Is that what I am holding? […]

April 17, 2017  |  Read Article