›Danza y Frontera/Dance and Border‹ is the latest creation by the choreographer and performer Amanda Piña and represents Part Four of the series »Endangered Human Movements«.

This work is inspired by a dance from the region around Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas – the borderlands between Mexico and the USA – that is still performed today in the context of extreme violence, drug trafficking and neoliberal exploitation. The roots of the dance from Matamoros, as it is presented by a group of performers under the direction of Rodrigo de la Torre, can be traced back to the »Danza de Conquista«, a dance that the Spanish crown imported from previous wars of conquest and which articulates its racist and colonialist world view – in which, for example, the indigenous population was forced to take the role of a subject race and people. At the same time, ancient, pre-Hispanic dance forms can also be detected in the »Danza de Conquista«.
In its present-day form, Piña claims, despite the brutal history of its origins, this dance can nevertheless »be seen as a form of resistance against colonial and later neoliberal forces«.

»A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary«, Piña says, quoting the American author Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa. »This country finds itself in a constant state of transition. This is where the atravesados live: the perverts, the weirdos the restless, the mixed race, the undead: those who go back and forth crossing the borders of ›normal people‹.«
In ›Danza y Frontera‹, Amanda Piña creates a mystical space in which levels of time dissolve, colonial narratives return and combine with hip-hop culture. 
 

Performance: Matteo Marziano Graziano, Daphna Horenczyk, Dafne del Carmen Moreno, Juan Carlos Palma Velasco, Rodrigo de la Torre Coronado, Lina María Venegas, Mariê Mazer, Carlos María Romero aka Atabey Mamasita, Jorgue luis Cruz Carrera Direction, Choreography: Amanda Piña Choreography, Transmission: Rodrigo de la Torre Coronado Dramaturgy: Nicole Haitzinger 
Research and theory: Amanda Piña, Nicole Haitzinger Music: Christian Müller Live percussion: Julio Cesar Cervantes Herrera Costume design: La mata del veinte/Julia Trybula Stage design: Michel Jimenez Production management: Janina Weißengruber, Daniel Hüttler Video: Danza de Conquista, Amanda Piña / estudio el gozo. 2018 Light design Victor Duran Management and international distribution: Something Great Management Angela Vadori Dramaturgy (Ruhrtriennale): Sara Abbasi 

Danza y Frontera is produced by nadaproductions, co-produced by Tanzquartier Wien and is funded by the City of Vienna (Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien) and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport, Section IV – Arts and Culture.

With the support of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National School of Folkloric Dance of Mexico, INBA, National Institute of Fine Arts Mexico, Diplomado “Como Encender Un Fosforo”, Alma Quintana, University Museum of Contemporary Art of Mexico, MUAC, The Goethe Institut Mexico, Museo Universitario del Chopo, the Mexican Embassy in Austria, ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival.