Queer Futurism in Motion:
Redefining Mexican Folklorico For
Radical Joy and Change
As a choreographer and performer, Alfonso's artistry thrives at the intersection of Mexican Ballet Folklorico and Modern dance, prioritizing adaptability and collective creation. He challenges conventional norms of folklorico, reimagining the tradition through community-driven storytelling and radical performances. His projects have been showcased nationally, that include collaborations with various artists from different mediums.
I'm
Alfonso
Alfonso Cervera is a first-generation queer Mexican American artist, choreographer, and educator born in San Bernardino, California and currently based in Los Angeles, CA, and Columbus, OH. Raised by Mexican Immigrant parents, including a mother with a visual impairment, Alfonso's work is deeply rooted in social change, centering Mexican American Identity queer representation, and the evolution of folklorico dance traditions.
Alfonso serves as a dance professor at the Ohio State University, where he inspires students with innovative approaches to choreography, drawing from contemporary influences and hybrid practices. He is the creator of the Poc-Chuc technique, a groundbreaking choreographic and physical practice that fuses Mexican Ballet Folklorico, Afro-Latine social dances, queer aesthetics with modern dance. This technique explores queer hybrid bodies, addressing the need for Latine dance pedagody and advancing the broader dance ecosystem by challenging traditional hierarchies in contemporary dance.
Another highlight was Alfonso Cervera and Irvin Gonzalez's incredibly" athletic duet. They balanced genuine" intimacy with cheeky humor and abstracted political commentary. Their duet, entitled "Q-lucha" was a queer reframing of luchador machismo. With their slow, tender partenering interspersed with aggressive wrestling, the luchador masks that obscured their faces, and the sounds of an "English Basic Phrases" instructional tape, Cervera and Gonzalez both counteracted and ironically exaggerated ".stereotypes of Mexican masculinity
The Daily Californian,
San Francisco- November 17, 2017
News & Updates
CDC - Fest June 2023
Choreography by Paige Calderera & Alfonso Cervera. A new duet that premiered at CDC-Fest in Orlando Florida. Explores the relationship and sharing between two movement practitioners from different cultural backgrounds.
.png)
UWM - Spring Dances 2023
The Dance Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee welcomes guest choreographer to create new work on students from various backgrounds. Cervera premiered a new work that used Poc-Chuc techniques and methodologies.
.png)
Una Noche Suave presented at FullTilt 2023 -Seattle
Presented under Evoke Productions. "Una Noche Suave" premiered at Full Tilt May 2023 under the direction of Alfonso Cervera in Seattle, WA. The work blended hybridized forms where...