Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Herrera . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Throughout my career, I have had many meaningful projects for various stages and varying reasons… concept, community impact programs, cast, creative process, touring, and scale of performance. However, David Herrera Performance Company’s most recent full-evening premiere ÓRALE! in the Fall of 2023 hit me differently. It combined my love for my community with a performance. Part of my artistic mission is to work in community with other Latinx/e artists in and out of dance to highlight the communities that we belong to. This project gave me the opportunity to shape a production rooted in that mission. ÓRALE! is an explosive, vibrant celebration of Latinidad.

First, ÓRALE! fulfilled a dream to work with the musical genius of Chicano living legend El Vez (Robert Lopez). I learned about El Vez over 20 years ago as an undergraduate at U.C Santa Cruz in a class about subversive Latino identities in the U.S. El Vez has over 35 years as a musician creating music that employs popular American sounds/songs such as Rock’n’Roll (in particular Elvis Presley), pop, and punk rock and rewriting the lyrics to represent his own Chicano/Pocho lived experience. Thus, rightfully claiming Latino and American identity simultaneously. Through the impact of his work, in time I recognized that I too could work through modern and contemporary dance, two dance genres many consider born in the U.S., to give power and place to my Latinx identity and communities. In a moment of kismet, assisted by a dear friend and dance colleague Yayoi Kambara, I was able to finally meet Robert during one of his tours to San Francisco in 2019. Yayoi made the introductions through one of his band members who she knew. It was then that I first proposed the idea of collaboration to him. Lucky me, he said “yes” and gave me carte blanche with his catalog of music to develop ÓRALE!

Besides Robert and his amazing band El Vette (back-up vocalist Crissy Guerrero) and the Memphis Mariachis (Ashley Ryu, Pat and Lety Beers, and Declan Halloran), ÓRALE! also gave me the chance to work with a who’s who of Latinx/e choreographers from across the country. I wanted ÓRALE! to be able to speak to a variety of experiences of Latinidad and felt strongly that in order to do this other Latinx/e choreographic voices outside of my own should be seen in the production. It also gave me the opportunity to exhibit what a production experience can be and look like when multiple Latinx/e artists come together. Working in true community. The project includes the choreographic contributions of Alfonso Cervera (L.A./Ohio), Eric Garcia (SF), Stephanie Martinez (Chicago), Gabriel Mata (Washington D.C.), and Yvonne Montoya (Tucson). Each choreographer brought their own identities, takes on Latinidad, interpretations of El Vez’s music, and their movement styles/genres of choice. ÓRALE! is richer, bolder, and more exciting because of this and them. To work with them inspired me and gave me a stronger sense of community than I had before. I hope all Latinx/e artists get to experience this at some point in their careers; I put out an invitation to those who would want to.

Finally, add a cast of 10 phenomenal Bay Area dancers (80% BIPOC and majority from the Latinx/e diaspora) and a brilliant design team (Ray Oppenheimer, Victoria Langlands, Ismael Acosta, Rogelio Lopez, and Michael Creason), magic is made. The aesthetics, sounds, folks involved, and community represented all came from those that I want to uplift. How could I not feel a sense of happiness and pride? Also, the audience reaction was nothing but joy! ÓRALE! has forever changed the way I approach art making. I look forward to working deeper, bigger, and louder in community.

Cast: Edgar Aguirre, Bianca Cabrera, Fabiana Santiago, Nico Maimon, Brooke Terry, Emily Hansel, Madison McGain, Juan Ruiz, Valerie Mendez, and Angel Velez.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a first-generation U.S. citizen, gay, Latinx/o choreographer, director, producer, and community leader. Having been born to Mexican immigrant parents, I currently live in San Francisco, CA, and lead both David Herrera Performance Company (DHPCo.) and the national Latinx Hispanic Dancers United (LHDU) initiative. I give voice and power to the communities that I come from by centering my communities in performances, community programs, and advocating for equity in the dance field. My weapon of choice is movement, working in modern, post-modern, contemporary, club, and the many cultural styles I grew up with such as Zapateado, Cumbia, Salsa, amongst others.

I live my personal and artistic life in liminality and intersectionality, with a constant sense of ni de aquí, ni de allá (neither from here nor from there) and being multiplicitous all at once. My life is more accurately depicted by the hyphen of Mexican-American rather than being American or my Mexican heritage; even as I recognize my privileges as a U.S. citizen. I am Latinx/e, Latino, Mexican American, and Chicanx/o depending on location and context. Some say I am Pocho (Americanized Mexican). My father proudly claimed we were part Indio, en la sangre (“Indian, in blood”). Through recent DNA genetic testing, I discovered that I am in fact 46.2% Indigenous American (Mexican roots). Sadly, none of the cultural practices of that community were passed down to me, and therefore I do not feel I can represent myself as such. I am multilingual and speak English, Spanish, Spanglish, and learned conversational Italian. I grew up in a low-income household in a vibrant multicultural community in Hollywood, CA, and have lived in Texas (East Texas near Dallas). Like most Latinx/e peoples in the U.S., my identity is an amalgamation of my current life and the history of my elders and ancestors—a mix of geographies, citizenship, languages, and cultures.

These are the communities that I embrace in my dance and community practice. These are the voices I amplify through the work of David Herrera Performance Company. I love dance, but sometimes wondered, “Does the U.S. concert dance landscape love me back?”. Growing up following and studying dance, it was (and still is) rare to see a Latinx/e lead dancer or leader at institutionalized and historically lauded dance companies or organizations (think Cunningham, Graham, Taylor, Jacob’s Pillow, etc). I’m not saying they don’t exist, only saying that it is rare and few and far between when they do. I also wonder by whose standards were these organizations being given designations of prestige and regard to begin with? And even though there are many Latinx/e members in the dance field and society (remember we are the second-largest ethnic/cultural group in the U.S.), most folks come into silence when you ask them to name a Latinx/e dance artist or company (with maybe the exception of Ballet Hispanico). They just don’t know where to look. I wish I could name many now, but that in itself is a whole other article!

DHPCo’s creation was a direct response and criticism of the dance field, which erased my identities and minimized my communities’ contributions to the field and society. After wishing, hoping, and dreaming that the field would change, I made the choice to build an organization with the sole purpose of uplifting my various Latinx/e communities. Besides choreographing for DHPCo., I also present other Latinx/e dance artists; I work to unify the national diasporic and intersectional Latinx/e dance community; I created community impact programming such as our LatinXtensions mentorship, national Latinx Hispanic Dancers United initiative, and “Moving Forward Together” community panels; I sit on multiple grant and foundation panels; have sat on an awards committee with the goal of diversifying awardees; and consult on equity practice in the dance field.

I am proud of the work I have done but know there is so much more to do. I cannot do it alone, so am thankful for the many artists and friends who have joined me on this crusade; too many to mention today. At a moment when our country is experiencing racial and cultural reckoning, instigated by a long-standing history of racism, violence, and marginalization of non-white communities, it is important that Latinx/e communities living in the U.S. are seen in our many glorious and rich configurations both on and off the dance concert stage.

I am here dedicated to bringing my Latinx/e communities together to celebrate ourselves, to champion our work and causes, to share our lives and experiences with a multicultural world, and to push open the door from every side of the dance field.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My artistic mission and heart are to give place and power to Latinx/e communities both within and outside of the arts with the goal of bringing the richness and vibrancy of our intersectional communities onto the professional concert dance circuit. Latinx/e people are the second largest ethnic group in the United States, yet we are rarely centralized or given prominence in the dance field (or in the arts in general). I am here to help change this. David Herrera Performance Company specifically centers Latinx/e communities in dance as subjects, dancers, choreographers, curators, teachers, audience members, and students. DHPCo. does this work by embracing and centering Latinx/e aesthetics, narratives, themes, sounds, and people. Now moving into 20 years of choreographic practice, I have explored immigrant histories, Latinx/e pride, family separations in the U.S.-Mexican border, LGBTQ identities, evolution of culture, intersectional and diasporic Latinidad, religion, Day of the Dead, bi/multilingualism, gender roles in the culture, racism and colorism, cross-cultural empathy, nationalism, mixed-race family dynamics, cultural poverty, and “whiteness” in the colonized Latinx/e body.

Beyond performances, with these values in mind, I also launched and continue to lead culturally centered Latinx community impact programs: LatinXtensions and Latinx Hispanic Dancers United. LatinXtensions is a 12-month mentorship program advising emerging Latinx/e dance artists to develop their professional artistic practice. Capacity-building focuses on nonprofit management skills, articulating values, cultural equity best practices, grant writing, and engaging community. In 2022, the program became national offering opportunity to any self-identifying Latinx/e dance artist from the United States. In January 2024, the program embarked on its 5th year and has awarded 32 mentorships to date.

Latinx Hispanic Dancers United is a national initiative where Latinx and Hispanic dance artists come together to build a national community. The network fosters community through collaboration and allows members to exchange resources and ideas. Since launching LHDU in San Francisco, the network has grown with artists from California, Texas, Virginia, Oregon, Georgia, Florida, New York, Arizona, Washington D.C., Utah, Illinois, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, amongst others. In 2023, LHDU held the first LHDU Summit & Retreat where artists from across the country came together to unify, organize, and create an actionable agenda to further the visibility and social-cultural power of our artistic community. We are growing, our doors are open, and we invite our larger community to more conversation, friendship, comradeship, and opportunity.

My driving force is, and will always be the communities from which I came from, grew up in, and am currently living in.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first began choreographing, in my late years of undergrad and eventually out in the “real world”, I was doing so with the wrong intention and mentality, but I didn’t know it. I knew that I wanted to have my work mean something. I knew that I wanted my Latinx/e communities’ voices to be seen and heard. But my communities were never mentioned or spoken about in my education and class training as a developing young artist or saw them represented in the touring companies. I was incorrectly taught, consciously or unconsciously, how to categorize movement and aesthetics into “professional” and “other”; with “professional” looking like and emulating those choreographers (mostly White) and movement styles (mostly ballet, modern and some post-modern) of immortalized eponymous names in U.S. dance history such as those mentioned earlier. While there is some value there, as there is with all dance forms, the unspoken directive was that to become a serious and professional choreographer you had to look and feel like those examples. Also, an unspoken injustice was the insinuation that these dance forms and aesthetics were superior to others. To this day, I incorrectly hear dance leaders proclaim that ballet is the foundation of dance. What?! I am not them, move like them, look like them, or want to be them. The contributions to movement and dance from my Latinx/e communities were systematically erased by the arts education I received. I was not willing to idly sit back and be told that I didn’t exist.

These teachings told me that the movement styles I grew up with such as Mexican Zapateado, Salsa, Cumbias, Folklorico, street styles, and cultural forms did not and could not be part of the professional concert dance experience. They were never mentioned or incorporated, or even presented as a possibility for professional work in my institutional training and education. For years, I created work for dance critics with a narrow viewpoint. I made abstract work without heart; I casted dancers who looked like the rest of the concert dance that was being produced; and for the fear of being labeled as “amateur”, I refrained from fully embracing the stories, styles, and aesthetics that had meant so much to me growing up. My work suffered. I suffered. And the dance community suffered. I felt like a double imposter, not delivering what the gate-keeping critics wanted and not creating what I so desperately wanted. I grew frustrated.

This frustration led me to a personal breakthrough and a “break-up” with my old teachings. After a couple of years of having created David Herrera Performance Company, I made the decision to never compromise on my values and goals again. I was no longer going to make work for dance critics and dance community members who didn’t understand me to begin with. I was done “hinting” at my experience as a Latinx/e or gay person. I would begin casting with the purpose of bringing to life the characters I knew and stories I live.

The lesson I learned and the path I continue, is that of decolonizing my practice. First, by creating work by, for, and with the intersectional Latinx/e communities I come from and know, and not for a “colorblind” general audience. Second, by rejecting the ludicrous notion that ballet is the foundation of dance or that one dance form is better than another. Third, by making high-caliber, accessible dance performances for the non-artist, for the non-dancer, and for my Latinx/e communities first. Fourth, by slowly transforming DHPCo. into a more collaborative organization between myself, dancers, designers, and administrative personnel and learning to give agency and correct credit to those involved. I say this because I grew up in a system where the choreographer unjustly got all the credit for choreography even though many had dancers create large portions of the material. I have made mistakes in the past, particularly by duplicating the systems I grew up in, saw, and was taught. I will likely still make some as I undo the damage.

I now recognize that I began doing decolonization work a long time before it became popular in our colleges and universities. My decolonization and equity journey are ongoing and will likely always be so. I am glad it is finally being addressed and taught at schools, studios, and universities but I would be remiss if I did not point out that it is done mostly by non-white dance leaders. I learned how to commit to my heart, my values, and how to do right by my communities allowing that to color and inform my choreographic ideas.

I also learned that “virtuosity” and trick choreography does not necessarily make a good dance or present a good idea. It is so overdone in our field! The same is true for nepotism in the field. Just because someone danced in a well-known company or under the tutelage of an established choreographer, does not mean they should be given credit before earning it. Can we please stop this? I learned that for me community, story, values, and heart coupled with movement are a more accessible entry for non-dance/arts community members. Being true to my values and mission has liberated me. DHPCo. has grown a lot since doubling down on this; we have a larger audience, we have developed rich community ties with artists across the country, and we have more grant and foundational support.

I always ask myself “Who is the work for?” before embarking on a new project to make sure I stick to my values and don’t default to those old teachings. I believe that dance has the power to influence culture and allow for more unification rather than separation and without compromising one’s identity. I believe that art is most powerful when speaking from truth alongside creativity, form, and ability. Dance is a conversation with communities. I make nuanced movement dance theater for the non-artist, inviting them to understand and form relationships with my Latinx/e, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and dance communities, while also asking them to question their own experiences and positionality.

My mission and intentions are clear.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dhperformance.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidherreraperformancecompany/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dhpco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dhpc2010
• Other: https://www.threads.net/@davidherreraperformancecompany

Image Credits
DHPCo_ÓRALE#2: Marisa Aragona DavidinStudio#2: Kyle Adler Orale_Edgar: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño KA_QueridxsMios: Kyle Adler DH_AAM_20: NA DH_Studio_CB_15: Connor Bruce LR_2344: Kyle Adler DH_DAR_DP_20: Deeksha Prakash LHDUSummit: Andrea Spearman