UNAY Contemporary Dance Tour Brings ‘Efervescencia’ to Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo

Merida, Yucatan — The second generation of contemporary dance students from the University of the Arts of Yucatan (UNAY) is concluding their professional training with a peninsula-wide tour of “Efervescencia: The Body in a State of Transformation,” a performance piece that has reached cultural venues, social reintegration centers, and schools across the region.

The showcase reflects the technical and interpretive level achieved by the students, as well as their ability to manage, collaborate, and connect with diverse audiences by bringing their work beyond the classroom to communities and spaces throughout the Yucatan Peninsula. The tour will close with a final performance on May 27 at 8:00 p.m. at the Daniel Ayala Perez Theater in Merida.

UNAY Dance Director Diana Bayardo Mercado highlighted that the graduation showcase tour represents a fundamental step in the students’ transition to the professional field, consolidating creative processes that engage with the region’s contemporary artistic context.

Bayardo Mercado noted that the piece was recently presented at the Teatro Constituyentes in Chetumal and the Francisco de Paula Toro City Theater in Campeche.

The tour also included performances at the women’s and men’s social reintegration centers in Merida, as well as at secondary schools in Progreso, Yaxkukul, Tekit, and Ixil, organized through the State Center for Crime Prevention and Citizen Participation (Cepredey).

The director explained that the tour involved academic work that began a year in advance, including artistic residencies with Marcela Ruiz Quintero (Colombia and Germany) and Erick Montes (Mexico and the United States), who were in charge of directing and choreographing the two pieces that make up the program: “La cuesta y el pedestal” (The Slope and the Pedestal) and “Zona de transicion” (Transition Zone).

The performance brings together dancers Leandra Adrian, America Bacelis, Daryana Campos, Jesus Espadas, Alina Fonseca, Belen Gongora, Aury May, Ericka Perez, Andrea Ponce, Marcela Quijano, Lilian Ramirez, Ximena Tapia, and Manelick Vargas.

The 13 performers present a program that reflects on processes of change, transformation, and collectivity through the language of contemporary dance.

Dancer Aury May said the tour has allowed them to strengthen their interpretive skills and adapt to different performance contexts.

“We learned to execute movement, to sustain not one but two pieces in different contexts, to solve performance problems, and to make creative decisions based on the needs of each space,” she said.