On Teaching...

I am a first-generation Mexican American from El Paso, Texas, and my academic work reflects my experiences as a Chicano. In the last five years, I have become more conscious of my self-identity and began feeling grateful for the challenges I have experienced as a Mexican American. This awareness has helped me understand the cultural nuances within this duality and how it shaped who I am today. I also realized that half of my identity, my Mexicanness, needed to be acknowledged and celebrated in my early artistic development. The Euro-U.S.-centric education I received in dance dictated the type of career I should have and what that could look like for me. However valued, this type of formative education historically discriminates, quantifies, and values heteronormativity, and I believe it goes against dance’s intrinsic characteristic to celebrate individual artistic expression. In my teaching, I make explicit that there is no right or wrong way to dance and simultaneously challenge students to explore new ways of moving. I have seen that this idea alone has been enough to bring students back from dysfunctional relationships with dance training. I believe students’ lived experiences contribute to the overall learning environment of a class. Therefore, I facilitate a convivencia— a coexistence supported by the deconstruction of traditionally established power dynamics in academia. Experiencing convivencia, as a Chicanx concept, transformed a top-down learning environment into a horizontal learning experience. It supports a positive and welcoming space that allows students to be brave and focus on their personal and technical formation.