DAVID HERRERA PERFORMANCE COMPANY
FESTIVAL NUESTRO: Insights from National Latinx Dance Festival Directors
Presented by: David Herrera Performance Company and Latinx Hispanic Dancers United
2026 marked the exciting launch of this dynamic panel discussion! Moving forward, the event will become an annual gathering each January to early February, bringing together artists, festival organizers, and curious minds. More than just an information session, this is a vibrant community space to discover new opportunities, share knowledge on touring and presenting work nationallly, and connect directly with festival leaders. Whether you're eager to learn, have questions, or want to get involved, we invite you to join us and be part of a growing creative community!
About Moderator & Presenter: David Herrera Performance Company and Latinx Hispanic Dancers United
David Herrera Performance Company (DHPCo.) champions and uplifts the U.S. Latinx community by creating innovative dance works, fostering leadership and collaboration in the dance field, and building community through performance, community outreach, and impact programming. DHPCo. is known for theatrical, visceral movement and for weaving dance, storytelling, music, and culture into a textured conversation between Latinx peoples and a multicultural society. Recognized as a regional and national leader, DHPCo. builds relationships among Latinx dance artists and increases spaces for networking, collaboration, and success through community impact programs such as Latinx Hispanic Dancers United and LatinXtensions mentorship.
DHPCo. works towards a future where Latinx voices are elevated and celebrated as central contributors to the U.S. dance field and society. The company redefines dance by fostering a more inclusive and equitable arts community—one where Latinx dance artists are financially supported, empowered with sustainable jobs, and connected through robust networks that enable them to thrive and inspire future generations.
Latinx Hispanic Dancers United (LHDU) is an intersectional culturally centered caucus, community, network, and exchange pipeline composed of national working Latinx and Hispanic dance artists, educators, administrators, dance writers, presenters, and teachers. LHDU plugs into a national framework to discuss and explore topics affecting Latinx and Hispanic dance artists. LHDU also provides a resource pipeline through our existing members which gives artistic support and helps uplift our communities.
LHDU: www.dhperformance.org/latinx-hispanic-dancers-united
Instagram: @davidherreraperformancecompany
BlakTinx Dance Festival (Los Angeles, CA & Phoenix, AZ)
Licia Perea (Founder, L.A. Director) is a native of Albuquerque, lived in LA for 26 years and now lives in Joshua Tree, CA. She has been awarded several Choreographer’s Fellowships from the NEA, City of LA, as well as numerous grants throughout her career. She has a Masters from the University of New Mexico in Choreography, where she taught for eight years. She also teaches Classical Pilates. Licia has choreographed and performed nationally and internationally for the stage, music videos, commercials, film and in improvisational settings. She is a founding member of the Latina Dance Project. She founded the BlakTinx Dance Festivals in LA & Phoenix. Since relocating to Joshua Tree she produces !Mas Festival! celebrating cultural diversity in dance, theater, film, music, visual and culinary arts in the hi-desert.
Liliana Gomez (Director, Phoenix) is a choreographer, movement artist, producer, and arts advocate based in Phoenix, Arizona. Rooted in her Mexican heritage, her work honors cultural memory, traditions, and lived experiences through contemporary concert dance that blends movement and theater. She began her career creating site-specific works in public spaces and collaborating with multidisciplinary artists, and continues to expand her impact by choreographing for high school and university dance programs while leading community pop-up classes.
Gomez serves as Managing Director of the BlakTinx Dance Festival in Phoenix, produced by the Latina Dance Project, where she champions platforms that uplift Black and Latinx choreographers. A proud parent and library professional, she is a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures fellow, Jacob’s Pillow participant, Cornell University presenter, and recipient of the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture’s Artists to Work grant.
BlakTinx Dance Festival is a contemporary movement festival celebrating innovative work by Black and Latinx choreographers. Produced by the Latina Dance Project, the festival premiered in Los Angeles in 2013 and expanded to Phoenix in 2017, establishing a bi-city platform that fosters artistic exchange and community connection.
The festival presents bold, personal choreography that reflects the lived experiences of its artists while inviting audiences into meaningful dialogue through performance. Beyond the annual festival, BlakTinx Phoenix produces pop-up performances at major cultural venues, expanding access to dance and creating additional opportunities for artists while continually growing the festival’s roster of choreographers.
Now planning its 10th anniversary, the Phoenix festival celebrates a decade of sold-out performances in downtown Phoenix. BlakTinx remains committed to diversifying the dance landscape and building spaces where artists and audiences gather to experience the transformative power of movement.
Festival website: www.Blaktinxdance.com
Instagram: @blaktinxdance
Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (FLACC) (San Francisco)
Liz Duran Boubion, MFA, RSMT (she/her/ella) is the Founding Artistic Director of the Piñata Dance Collective since 2011 and has led the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (FLACC) since 2014. FLACC is a resident company at Dance Mission Theater located in the Ramaytush Ohlone territory of Yelamu, now known as San Francisco, California. Over the last 12 years, FLACC has presented more than 150 Latine and Indigenous dance makers, scholars and culture bearers from the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America. FLACC curates live performances by local and visiting choreographers, hosts master classes, provides work-in-progress feedback showings, facilitates panel discussions, and runs an on-line program called El Grito podcast. FLACC has committed to creating decolonial sanctuary spaces for Latine dance makers and its allied communities, while advocating for Apartheid Free Zones in the dance sector from Turtle Island to Palestine.
Boubion is a second generation Chicana, queer and neurodivergent choreographer, educator and presenter who builds bridges between several communities by placing value on intersectional identity, adaptive dance practices, language liberation, care economies, mental health and radical aesthetics for revolutionary times. Her dance practices are based in modern-contemporary dance, contact improvisation, Tamalpa Life-Art Process, ecosomatics, and Chicana feminist spiritualities. Boubion has presented her choreography and performance labs at Galeria Ajolote in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; Mitotecali in Mazunte, Oaxaca, Mexico; Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California, and several venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a BA in Dance from CSU Long Beach, an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from the California Institute of Integral Studies(CIIS) and is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). Boubion offers private movement coaching and teaches dance to all ages and abilities. She has been adjunct Dance faculty at St. Mary's College of California, Sonoma State University and is a visiting artist at the Scripps College Dance Department, Lines BFA program at Dominican College and at CSU Long Beach.
Website: www.lizboubion.org | www.flaccdanza.org
Instagram: @flaccdanza_
Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival (Houston, TX)
Adam Castaneda (Director) is a dancer, choreographer, and arts administrator living in Houston, Texas. He is the Executive and Artistic Director of the Pilot Dance Project, and his programming has been funded by the Mid-America Arts Alliance, City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment, Texas Commission on the Arts, EmcArts, the Morales Foundation, HoustonFirst, the Midtown Management District, Bunnies on the Bayou, the Woodlands Arts Council, Harris County Public Health, and Dance Source Houston. Through his non-profit, he produces a full season of professional Modern dance as well as the Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival and Bayou City Dances. In 2018, he was selected from a national pool of applicants to attend the Jacob's Pillow National Dance Presenters Forum and was chosen as one of Dance Source Houston's 2018-2019 Artists-in-Residence. Adam is a four-time recipient of the Houston Arts Alliance's Support for Artists and Creative Individuals Grant for his evening-length works Lazarus in the Promised Land (2021), Migration (2023), The Women of Northside (2024), and Carnegie Summer (2026). Outside of dance, Adam is a proud full-time faculty member of Houston Community College's English department.
The Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival is a three-night celebration of Latinx choreography produced annually in the spring at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH). Festival participants are selected from an open call for submissions that opens every January. All genres are welcome to apply, and the festival is open to both emerging and established artists. To date, the festival has supported more than fifty different artists, collectives, and companies from across the Lone Star State and beyond.
Website: www.pilotdanceproject.org
Latinx Movement Festival (Washington D.C.)
Gabriel Mata (pronounced: gah-bryehl mah-tah) is a Mexican American dance choreographer, educator, and performer based in Washington DC. Brown Baby is his project-based dance company and he is the director of the Latinx Movement Festival in DC. His dance performance work: motion memoirs and movement form: contemporary sabor, focus on jotería, Latinidad / brownness, and community-based movement forms.
Mata's dance works have been performed in California, New York, Minnesota, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, Washington DC, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has worked collaboratively with Dr. Manuel Cuellar, Amelia Rose Estrada, Armani Rey ColónGary Champi, and Angel Ramirez. His work has been presented at Stanford University, San José State University, Georgian Court University, Santa Ana College, Salisbury University, Howard Community College, the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory, and American University. His dances have been commissioned by David Herrera Performance Company, Jane Franklin Dance, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Dance Loft on 14, sjDANCEco, Charlotte Dance Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers, Dance Place, Silicon Valley Pride, the Hispanic National Bar Association, Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival, Corazón Folklórico DC, and the New Orchestra of Washington.
The Latinx Movement Festival in Washington, DC is a dynamic annual celebration on the expansive artistry of Latinx movement makers in the DC metropolitan areas and across the United States. Founded and directed by Gabriel Mata, the festival is rooted in the value of movement as both a physical and cultural practice. The festival highlights Latino/a/x/e creators whose work engages themes such as contemporary, queer, migration, collaboration, and traditional forms of performance. The festival is a platform for voices often underrepresented in the dance and performance fields, while creating a welcoming space for cross-generational and interdisciplinary collaboration. The Latinx Movement Festival is not just a celebration of dance, it is a movement for visibility, equity, and cultural celebration that continues to build momentum each year.
Website: www.gabrielmatamovement.com/latinxmovementfestivaldc
Instagram: @latinxmovementfestival
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Chicago Latinx/e Contemporary Movement Festival
Wilfredo Rivera (He/Him/Él) is a full-time director, choreographer & arts leader. He was born in Honduras, trained with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and was a founding member of River North Dance Chicago. Rivera is the City of Chicago 2025 Creative Spirit Award recipient; he's also been honored with the 2009 Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation Choreography Award, a 2001 After Dark Award, nominated for a 3ARTS Award in 2017 & 2018 & recipient of a 2021 black album.mixtape award for his multicultural work. In Chicago, Rivera's concert work has been featured at The Auditorium Theatre, The Chicago Symphony Center, Chicago Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Harris Theater, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, DuSable Museum, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Links Hall, and Old Town School of Folk Music among others. Theatrical choreography includes productions for Goodman Theatre, Teatro Vista, Bailiwick Theatre, Metropolis Arts Center, Columbia College, American Theater Co., Porchlight Theater, The Artistic Home, Pegasus Players, Aerial Dance, and American Players Theater, Forward Theater in WI. He's the Artistic Director & CEO of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre (CRDT) and serves as Musical Theatre Program Coordinator & Assistant Professor of Instruction for Columbia College Chicago.
CRDT’s Chicago Latinx/e Contemporary Movement Festival, is a vibrant celebration of culture, identity, and artistry. This one-of-a-kind event aspires to honor the wide-ranging creativity of Latinx/e dance makers from Chicago the greater Midwest and beyond, offering a platform for artists at all stages in their careers. The Latinx/e experience is beautifully complex and layered — a mosaic of stories shaped by heritage, migration, gender, queerness, resilience, and joy. Through this festival, we hope to uplift a multiplicity of perspectives, celebrating the depth and diversity within our communities. Audiences can expect an evening of dynamic performances that embrace contemporary, experimental, and interdisciplinary forms of movement and storytelling.
More than a performance, this is a gathering — a community-driven event where artists and audiences come together to witness, reflect, and celebrate identity in motion.
The festival features choreographic works engaging themes of binational identity, multi-generational experiences, immigrant narratives, identity politics, gender, and queerness within the Latinx/e experience.
Website: www.cerquarivera.org
Instagram: @cerquarivera