DAVID HERRERA PERFORMANCE COMPANY
History Portfolio
Established in 2007 DHPCo. is a leading dance organization in San Francisco. The company creates dances that are influenced by the intersectional Latinx communities and diaspora in the United States. To date the company has touched upon Latinx celebration, racial & cultural identity, immigration and forced family separations, religion as culture, class, relationships to the environment, Dia de Los Muertos, racism & colorism, LGBTQ+ identity in the Latinx community, "idolized" Americana, cultural dance aesthetics, decolonization of the Latinx body, amongst other topics. Some selected productions are:
ÓRALE!
Premiere: 2023
Z Space, SF
Dancers: 10
Special Musical Guests: El Vez and the Memphis Mariachis
Choreography: David Herrera (SF) Alfonso Cervera (Ohio), , Stephanie Martinez (Chicago, IL), Gabriel Mata (Washington D.C.), Yvonne Montoya (Tucson, AZ), and Eric Garcia (SF)
Light Design: Ray Oppenheimer
Asst. Light Design: Victoria Langlands
Sound Engineer: Michael Creason
Costumes: Ismael Acosta
Set: Rogelio Lopez
Time: 75 minutes
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David Herrera Performance Company presents ÓRALE!, a marriage of song and dance featuring live music by Chicano living legend El Vez (the "Mexican Elvis" Robert Lopez) and the Memphis Mariachis. DHPCo. creates a magical and explosive contemporary dance experience of Latinx celebration! Touching on the lived realities of a diverse Latinx community in the U.S., from Immigrants to "Pochos", and everyone in between. Órale is sure to bring a smile to your face, make you want to groove in your seat, and brings you closer to understanding the vibrancy, complexity, and richness Latinx communities contribute to American culture. The evening also features the choreography of 6 leading national Latinx dance makers who together weave a singular movement spectacular!
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Photo: Marisa Aragona
The Tip of My Tongue
Premiere: 2022
Z Space, SF
Performers: 7
Guest choreography: Antoine Hunter
Light Design: Ray Oppenheimer
Ass. Light Design: Victoria Langlands
Music/Composer: D. Riley Nicholson
Costumes: Ismael Acosta
Media Design: Olivia Ting
Set Design: Annette Jannotta & Olivia Ting
Time: 55 minutes
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The Tip of My Tongue examines how non-English or mixed-English minority communities in the United States use language and communication practices as tools for cultural visibility, perseverance, and connecting to other cultures. The work also challenges the "This is America, Speak English!" mindset held by a dominant English speaking culture set on assimilation and erasure of non-English languages. Based on the real life experiences of the director and cast, coupled with the increase on language violence in the U.S., the dance asks: How do differentiating views and ways of communication come to an understanding when words are taken away and body language and emotion become our only source of communication?
Photo: Kyle Adler
Resurrection of Everyday People
Premiere: 2019
Z Space, SF
Performers: 5
Light Design: Ray Oppenheimer
Music/Composer: D. Riley Nicholson
Costumes: Liz Brent
Time: 45 minutes
Resurrection of Everyday People began as a questioning of the cultural & political struggles affecting the country and the loss some communities experienced in social spaces. However, before rehearsals began, David Herrera’s father passed away and the element of loss took on yet another layer of meaning; a more personal one. Returning to the studio, the dance morphed into personal explorations of overcoming, healing, perseverance, and relationships. The power of empathy as a tool for healing and connection to others became the focus. How does life altering loss (be it political, cultural, personal, emotional, or physical) help us gain empathy to others? Can empathy heal the cultural divide affecting the nation by reminding us of our shared humanity? Does empathy serve as a practice to rebuilding ourselves whilst helping to build bridges, rather than walls, between people from different walks of life?”
Photo: Natalia Perez
The Least of Them
Premiere: 2016
Z Space, SF
Performers: 6
Live Violinist: Colm O'Riain
Music: Adam Starkkopf, William Sammons, Joshua Roberts
Live Violinist: Colm O'Riain
Costumes: Keriann Egeland
Set: Evan Brownstein
Spoken Word: Flavia Mora
Time: 55 minutes
Presented in an audience immersive setting, The Least of Them is a frank conversation of the personal & cultural clashes in current social and political news. In particular, the dance work dissects the way in which race and skin color are weaponized discredit certain communities. At the start of the performance, audience are labeled into “perceived” racial categories, immediately confronting the workings of racism and stereotypes. Events such as the Rachel Dolezal controversy, Donald Trump’s fear agenda against Mexican and Muslim peoples, and the ongoing caught-on-tape beatings against Black citizens by police officers, all color the choreography in this poignant and in-you-face performance.
Photo: Marisa Aragona
TOUCH
Premiere: 2015
Z Space, SF
Performers: 9
Lighting Design: Ray Oppenheimer
Music/Composers: Kevin Dusablon & Michael Forst
Set: Evan Brownstein
Costumes: Keriann Egeland
Spoken Word/Poetry: Melisa Bañales
Time: 45 minutes
As a company who centers the diverse experiences of Latinx people living in the United States, David Herrera Performance Company sheds light to the struggles lived by families torn by deportations, ICE raids, and the experience of immigration. The dance is inspired by Herrera’s own family, the work of organizations such as United We Dream, which arranges for the children of deported men and women to reunite with their parents at the U.S./Mexico border, and I.D.E.A.S. at UCLA, a student led activist group comprised of DACA recipients and their supporters. TOUCH tells these untold stories, giving visibility to people under the radar of American popular culture; making their stories as real and tangible as the ability to touch itself.
Read the Dance Research Journal academic article featuring TOUCH
Photo: Marisa Aragona
the Stranger (Part 1)
Premiere: 2013
Dance Mission Theater, SF
Theatrical Director: Jean Johnstone
Light Design: Meghan "Moe" Beitiks
Music/Composer: Rob Reich ​​
Costume: Keriann Egeland
Time: 43 minutes
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Using the personal stories of the director and cast as jumping off points, the Stranger presents the journey of finding and defining oneself through one’s inclusion and exclusion from different communities when class, culture, and media images overlap. In this current episode, DHPCo. reveals how a person’s position within America’s class system affects their paths of self and community identity, and the awards or consequences those chosen paths may have.
Photo: Marisa Aragona
SLUMBER
Premiere: 2012
Dance Mission Theater, SF
Performers: 9
Theatrical Director: Jean Johnstone
Light Design: Meghan “Moe” Beitiks
Music/Composer: Kevin Dusablon
Cotumes: Keriann Egeland
Set/Media: Ben Flax
Time: 60 minutes
Slumber, a traveling installation dance influenced by Dia de los Muertos traditions and loosely following the Greek Orpheus myth, is a theatrical feast for its audience. The show moves from room to room, transformed to be a living room, the river Stix, a cabaret, and more. The audience is guided by a most unlikely usher (Death) who invites them to witness the “crossing over” journey. As they travel, the audience becomes a living set and environment which the performers inhabit. Site specific and effortlessly interactive, the show treks through the place where Life and Death meet. Slumber references various cultural myths and beliefs about death and the underworld including those of Latinx, pan-Asian, Ancient Greek and Native American folklore. Dark but tender and often funny and colorful, this original full-length work challenges many boundaries, including those of theatrical form.
Photo: Weidong Yang
American Layercake
Premiere: 2011
Dance Mission Theater, SF
Performers: 7
Theatrical Director: Jean Johnstone
Light Design: Meghan “Moe” Beitiks
Music: Joshua Roberts
Media Design: Olivia Ting
Time: 43 minutes
American Layercake invites the audience to question the definition of the Nuclear Family & American Dream through the lens of a culturally mixed modern family unit: white father, Latina mother, and their lesbian daughter. An omnipresent Chorus directs our focus and guides both characters and audience as we attempt to recognize some of the deep pull these ideals continue to hold, and the enduring need to find a way to feel at home with oneself and one's community. Sometimes humorous, other times raw, always energetic and intensely felt, American Layercake, in its attempts to both shake off and climb beyond the present moment with it's rough-shod immigration laws and it's Mad Men addiction, becomes unwittingly aching and beautiful.
Origins of Flight / Origines de Vuelo: An Immigration Story
Premiered: 2009
Performers: 9
Light Design: Meghan “Moe” Beitiks
Music/Composer: Joshua Roberts
Time: 50 minutes
Origenes de Vuelo/Origins of Flight: An Immigration Story was the culmination of DHPCo.'s residency at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. The work presents the harsh realities of immigrating and the on-going struggle immigrants face to maintain their cultural identity in the United States. Origins is loosely based on Herrera's mother's personal immigration experience. The plot follows the flight of a young Mexican girl who encounters love and loss, cultural backlash, and consequently is forced to look to the unknowns of "El Norte". The evening also spotlights the relationship formed between Mexican mother and her American born son. Origins speaks to the difficult journey where many immigrants sense of identity is defined not by what you have/own, but by history and perseverance.
Photo: MCCLA/Adrian Arias
