UANL at South Korea’s TANK Art Festival

Ablución, a compelling dance piece about displaced people around the world, was performed by the Performing Arts School Dance Company on July 4 at the Atrium Grand Theater in Seongnam.

Teachers from the UANL School of Performing Arts (FAE) at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon participated in the eighth edition of the South Korean international dance festival, Arts in Tank.

With an excerpt from their work Ablución, members of the FAE Contemporary Dance Company—Brenda Berenice Calderón, Sofía Ramos Flores, and Sergio Lara Salazar—along with their choreographer Sunny Savoy, represented UANL, Mexico, and Latin America at the globally renowned event.

The festival took place from July 1 to 7 and featured artists from 11 countries, including Germany, Australia, China, South Korea, the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. According to Deyanira Triana Verástegui, head of the School of Performing Arts, it was an opportunity to showcase the work of university artists on world-class stages.

“This participation by the company is highly significant, providing valuable international visibility by sharing the stage with professional artists from around the world”.

Deyanira Triana Verástegui

Head of the School of Performing Arts

The Play

In Ablución, Sunny Savoy, director and choreographer of the Contemporary Dance Company, explained how rugs are used in the set design to allude to refugees’ prayers, while sheets symbolize the makeshift shelters they create to survive.

“It is also an opportunity to showcase who we are and demonstrate our quality alongside our international peers. We can share our roots by presenting a dance from our country and learn about what is happening around the world,” commented Triana Verástegui.

The play explores the experience of people displaced from their homelands, with their memories expressed through movement. The three performers—Brenda Calderón, Sofía Ramos, and Sergio Lara—take the audience on a journey through a narrative about what it means to feel displaced and to feel as if you have no right to exist.

Sunny Savoy

Director and Choreographer

Savoy also received an invitation to lead a workshop for Korean choreographers, aiming to help them discover their own voice in dance while exploring diverse perspectives on artistic creation

“Ablución”

Author: Sunny Savoy
Performed by: Dance Company of the UANL School of Performing Arts
Presentation: Friday, July 4, at the Atrium Grand Theater, Seongnam, South Korea
Themes: Displacement of lives, thoughts, dreams, and bodies; spaces occupied and emptied; loss and belonging; a reflection on our right to exist and the power of resistance
Composers: Ernesto Pérez García and Alfredo Pérez Savoy (original music)
Video: Luciano Pérez Savoy
Production: Marcela Humphrey
Costume and Curtain Design: Valeria Valdez
Dancers: Brenda Calderón, Sergio Lara Salazar, and Sofía Ramos