Ballet Nepantla

ballet nepantla originated from a series of pláticas between founders andrea guajardo and martín rodríguez, two artists whose early professional identities emerged from distinct genres: andrea from classical ballet and contemporary dance, and martin from traditional mexican folklórico. they envisioned a new form of expression that fused the two modalities, and they envisioned an aesthetic that would speak to the historical, cultural, and social realities of a broader narrative of being mexican, mexican american, immigrant, and trans-cultural. drawing inspiration from gloria anzaldúa’s borderlands theory, andrea and martín imagined they could create performances that spoke to the “in-between” qualities of being from both sides of the borderland. they found the idea of nepantla, a nahuatl term of the indigenous people of mexico. nepantla provides a historical, intellectual, and artistic framework through which to explore the “in-between” spaces of history and culture by exploring new ar