Tania Pérez-Salas
Artistic director and choreographer
Born in Mexico City on February 16, 1970, Tania Pérez-Salas is a choreographer and artistic and executive director of the Tania Pérez-Salas Dance Company. She attended basic education at the Coyoacan Academy specialized in dance, taking classes for professional level in classical, folklore, theater and contemporary dance. For a decade she participated in various dance and theater classes and workshops with renowned teachers such as Ana del Castillo, Alida Kent, Hebert Darien, Juan José Gurrola, Rosario Armenta, Rocío Flores, Miguel Ángel Palmeros, Federico Castro and Farahilda Sevilla, among others. She studied eight consecutive years with Xavier Francis, one of the pillars of the formation of four generations of dancers in Mexico. She also studied flamenco for five years with the teacher Mercedes Amaya.
In 1993, after more than 15 years of dance studies, she obtained important awards, such as the best female performer in the National Dance Award. In 1994 she won the Virginia Fábregas awards for best dancer and best choreographer and in the same year she won the National Choreography Award. She participated as a soloist performer in the VI International Dance Competition in Paris, being the first Mexican dancer to be among the first five places in this contest. In 1996 she won the prize awarded by the audience for the best choreography at the San Luis Potosi International Festival.
In 1994 she founded the Tania Pérez-Salas Dance Company and since then she has obtained grants from the National Fund for Culture and the Arts as a performer and choreographer. She has twice been part of the National System of Artists.
She was selected, as choreographer and dancer, by the General Society of Authors and Publishers, in 1999, for the Generation Ñ Encounter in the city of Barcelona, Spain. In December 2001 and January 2002 she worked with cellist Jimena Giménez Cacho in Echoes of the World, solos for cello and dance, in Mexico and Spain.
As a choreographer she has worked with the National Dance Company, premiering works such as: “3.Catorce Dieciséis” and “Entre el Cielo y la Tierra”. She has also collaborated as a choreographer for the Ballet Hispánico company, premiering her work at the Joyce Theatre in New York. She was also invited to choreograph a piece for the Island Moving Company.
Tania Pérez-Salas, along with her company, has been invited to the most prestigious festivals in the world such as the Latin American Dance Festival in Montreal; the Biennale de la Danse in Lyon, France; the Oriente Occidente Festival in Italy; the Festival Internacional Cervantino, Mexico; the Fall For Dance Festival of the New York City Center Theatre, The Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival; the Festival de Solos y Duetos de Venezuela; the Shanghai International Festival, in China; the Galway Arts Festival, in Ireland; the Tel-Aviv Dance Festival, in Israel and the Iberomix Festival at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Celebrity Series in Boston; at the Out In The Tropics Miami Festival, in Aachen, Germany; Festival Schrit- tmacher 2018 - Just Dance! In 2019 he participated in festivals such as Mérida FEST and in León Guanajuato she inaugurated the Día Cero Festival. Likewise, between 2006 and 2020, she was invited to participate in important tours throughout the United States and Canada, performing in major theaters such as the Yerba Buena Theater in San Francisco; three times at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; Tou hill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis; the Mondavi Center in California; the Adrienne Arscht Center For The Performing Arts in Miami and the Music Center in Los Angeles, among others.
With her company, Tania Pérez-Salas also participated in the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Mexico and Egypt, performing at the Cairo and Alexandria Opera Houses.
Tania Pérez-Salas and her company have performed in important performing arts markets, such as CINARS, in the city of Montreal, at the Monument National Theater and at Puerta de las Americas, in Mexico City, in June 2003 and 2004. Also in 2019 along with her company she went to the Internationale Tanzmesse in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Tania Pérez-Salas was a jury member for the 2006 National Prize for Arts and Sciences and on two occasions for the Scholarship for Study Abroad of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts. During the period 2004-2006 she was selected as Citizen Advisor of the Secretary of Culture of Mexico City. In 2008 she was host and dance specialist for Channel 22. She has been in charge of three television seasons of the program “Juego de Cuerpos”, and later with a new name “Pasión en Movimiento”.
In 2012 she and her company were awarded the Las Lunas del Auditorio award in recognition of the best Mexican contemporary dance project.
In 2014 she received recognition as a Pioneer Woman from the Universidad Autónoma de México. In 2016 she premiered with great success her work Macho Man XXl at the Palace of Fine Arts, which has since been presented on various stages both nationally and internationally and has been acclaimed by critics and audiences.
On June 16 and 17, 2018, it successfully celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Company at the Palace of Fine Arts, where it received from authorities of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, a diploma and a plaque of recognition for its outstanding career and contribution to the development of contemporary dance in Mexico. At the Festival de Danza Contemporánea in Mexico City, she received the 2019 Luis Fandiño medal.
In 2019 she participated in ENARTES of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts.
Tania Pérez-Salas Dance Company was selected by the Profest 2019 stimulus to perform the Death that Dances Festival as part of the Day of the Dead celebration, joining the artistic activities of the Cuauhtémoc Mayor's Office, presenting her work in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco in Mexico City.
In 2020, with the support of EFIARTES, she staged the revival of her work Ex-stasis, presenting it at the Teatro Juárez with great acceptance from the audience.
In 2020 she was invited to the celebration of the International Dance Day convened by the International Jacob's Pillow Festival, among great figures of contemporary dance worldwide, on a digital platform due to the pandemic. In the same year she participates as a dancer and choreographer in a video clip with Beto Hale in a production between Mexico and the United States. Also that year, she participates with the Secretary of Culture of Mexico City in the festival: “Processes of Culture of Peace, Human Rights, Cultural Rights, Equality, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination”.
Each work of Tania Pérez-Salas derives from a personal experience, which allows her to connect emotionally with her audience; her work is nourished by her personal experiences, her love for literature, cinema, philosophy and visual arts. Thus choreographies such as Invocaciones, El Esclavo, Biografía del Deseo, Visitante, Las Horas, Anabiosis, Las Aguas del Olvido, Clodia la Impúdica and Ex-Stasis, among many others that have gone around the world.
From 2020 to date, his work has been of cultural management in several initiatives to consolidate the following projects: “Frida Transparente”, “H2O, el Encuentro con la Vida”, “Sin Cupo Limitado” and “Run Eco MX”.
List of awards and distinctions by year of the Tania Pérez-Salas Dance Company and its Artistic Director:
1993 - Participates in the XIV National Dance Award, as dancer and choreographer, with the choreography Lejos Despertaré Amando, obtaining the Honorable Mention as best female performer.
1994 - Virginia Fábregas Cultural Center Award for Best Choreography Lejos Despertaré Amando.
1994 - Virginia Fábregas Cultural Center Award for Best Dancer.
1994 - Awarded the choreography scholarship for creators of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts, to develop the project “ El Esclavo”, inspired by the novel by I. Bashevis Singer, for the period 1994 - 1995.
1994 - Participates in the National and Continental Award of Contemporary Dance Choreography, obtaining first place with his choreography “Un Silencio Abierto”.
1994 - Participates in the Sixth International Dance Competition of Paris as a soloist performer, being among the first five places.
1996 - Wins the prize awarded by the public for best choreography at the XVI International Festival of San Luis Potosi.
1996 - Awarded the 96-97 scholarship as a contemporary dance performer, within the National Fund for Culture and the Arts program.
2004-2006 - Invited to be a citizen advisor for the government of Mexico City.
2004-2006 - Obtains recognition and support from Mexico en Escena.
2011 - Member of the National System of Creators.
2013 - Awarded with the Luna del Auditorio awards as the best contemporary dance company.
2014 - She receives the award from the Universidad Autónoma de México through the Faculty of Law the award for Pioneer Woman Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
2014 - Participated as a jury member of the Support Program for Teaching, Research and Dissemination of the Arts.
2017 - She is recognized for her publication in the textbooks of the Ministry of Public Education in the subject of Art Education.
2017 - Participates in the conference “Dance as a Response to Violence” as part of the Cycle for a Change of World, second edition “Inhabiting Democracy” at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
2018 - Obtains recognition for his 25 years of success and artistic career and for his contribution to the development and evolution of contemporary dance in Mexico at the Palace of Fine Arts.
2019 - Awarded the Luis Fandiño medal for her outstanding career in contemporary dance.
2019 - Member of the National System of Creators for Culture and the Arts.
2020 - Participates online in the International Dance Day organized by the International Jacob's Pillow Festival.
2020 - Participates with the Secretary of Culture of Mexico City in the festival: “Processes of Culture of Peace, Human Rights, Cultural Rights, Equality, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination.
