The ballet The lily gardenfrom the teacher Cecilia Lugowill be presented on October 19 in Mexico, after winning the Grand Pix in the Czech Republic.
This award was obtained, in the month of July, by the students of Danza Capital, the project for the professionalization of contemporary dance, born in 2012 from the School of Contemporary Dance of the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center, under the conception of teacher Lugo herself.
In exclusive interview with MILLENNIUMthe dancer, teacher and choreographer Cecilia Lugo (Tampico, Tamaulipas, 1955), who this 2024 celebrates 60 years of artistic career, He says that he took the risk of traveling to Prague with the dancers to win that recognition again, which he was awarded for the third time.
“We got first place with my choreography; We came very happy, because it was a great experience for everyone. The members of Danza Capital are dancing spectacularly because they have a very good level.”
It is a competition between schools, he details, in which he participated for the first time in 2008 with Contempodanza Escuela; In 2014 he did it with Contempodanza Espacio en Movimiento, and in July of this year, he attended Danza Capital of the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center.
“It was a great experience, especially for the dancers, who also took intensive courses in ballet, contemporary dance, hip hop and methodology, for a week at the National Conservatory in Prague. Winning also allowed them to return stronger and with great self-esteem. It is like a mirror and a great incentive to go to these festivals, since we measure ourselves internationally, demonstrating that Mexican dance is powerful.”
Teacher Lugo explains that the award-winning choreography in Prague is a 15-minute adaptation of the work The flame in the mirror, premiered in 2022 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, by Contempodanza, as a tribute to Rubén Bonifaz Nuño.
It is a piece about life from the female perspective; Lilies represent women in their powerful essence, because they can equally go from fragility to power and from delirium to greatness, as a symbol of their greatness.
“The recognition was given to us as a school for the best interpretation, choreography and staging. They gave us a thousand euros that were distributed among the dancers,” says Lugo.
Fundamental art education
Cecilia Lugo, director of the Contemporary Dance Production Center (Ceprodac) of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) since 2022; In addition to being an advisor and choreographer for Danza Capital, she maintains that artistic education is a fundamental issue in the development of the country.
“This year I turn 60 in dance, throughout this time I have been learning, I really like directing, harnessing the power that performers have, which is channeled through movement and emotion.”
He remembers that there were times when he wanted to leave everything, because he could no longer really work with his independent company, since he ran out of resources. However, she insisted on maintaining her project, acting as choreographer, director, teacher, illuminator and cultural manager.
“It’s difficult, I thought about quitting several times, but I always had people who believed in me and encouraged me, that’s why I continue with big projects. Directing is my life, I love choreographing, and with all of this I am very happy. In all these years I only took a three-month break, because I immediately returned to Contempodanza
“Any project that I direct has to be surrounded by a lot of joy and empathy, that is how it has been every day of my life, hence the years with Contempodanza have been of great satisfaction. Maestro Rafael Zamarripa, director of the Floklorico Ballet of the University of Colima, always told me that it was not Contempodanza, that it was Contentodanza because we always laughed so much, I miss those moments so much, now that I am performing another function at Ceprodac.”
Career in dance
He started dancing at the age of eight; Today Cecilia Lugo is 68 years old and has a long list of anecdotes and experiences.
“I studied ballet at the Mexican Dance Academy, then at the National Dance Company, with the Amalia Hernández Ballet, with Michel Descombey, who left me great lessons. Thanks to this I have this accumulation that I consolidated with the creation, in 1986, of Contempodanza; I founded Danza Capital in 2012 and directed it for 10 years, until before the pandemic; Now they called me as an advisor.”
What can she say about life, she assures that she is happy and grateful, after traveling to Prague with Danza Capital and winning the New Prague Dance Festival in the Czech Republic, 2024.
She evokes her beginnings in her native Tamaulipas, at the age of four, in the public square of Ciudad Madero, when her grandfather took her to the park, he sang to her and she danced.
“The song says: ‘She has fame wherever she wants, the bold Concepción / For being the best rumbera and for hitting the sound hard.’ I danced and my grandfather Carlos passed the hat, they gave us money, with which we later went to buy sweets. My mother always got angry, not knowing that this was the germ of free and spontaneous dance, always expressing the most genuine part of me.”
His life changed when the family came to Mexico City because his older sisters wanted to study folklore: “Not me, I wanted to be a rumbera, at that time my grandmother took us to see rumbera movies: I saw Ninón Sevilla and María Antonieta Pons dance.”
However, as her sisters entered the Mexican Academy of Dance, she was forced to audition for ballet, where she was accepted.
“I discovered my vocation at the age of 14, when I stepped foot in the Palace of Fine Arts, performing as a chorus for the Nutcracker with the National Dance Company. I arrived three hours early because I was very excited, so I had to be at the rehearsal of the Ballet of the Americas, by Amalia Hernández, then I was able to see Alvin Aily’s Ballet, with Revelations. I said to myself: ‘Here is something for me that could be my life.’ Three years later he would dance precisely that dance with Amalia Hernández.”
And it goes with tribute
The presentation of The Garden of Lilies, by teacher Cecilia Lugo, on October 19 at the Esperanza Iris City Theater, at 7:00 p.m., also includes the staging of the play Chronology of Longing. Homage to Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1947), said choreography by teacher Silvia Unzueta, pays tribute to the visionary painter, set designer, anthropologist, ethnologist and caricaturist who promoted the modern dance movement in Mexico.
