MICHELLE FÉLIX
DANCE
JUYA ANIA
In the performance “Juya Ania”, Michelle Félix shares her personal relationship to the instruments worn by the Deer Dancers of the Mayo-Yoreme culture. It is a sonic journey into the world of the forest, into the Juya Ania: The sacred place where the Deer lives and finds both material and spiritual nourishment. The sound of the instruments refers to the expedition that each dancer undertakes to obtain the gift of dance and music. Michelle Félix's personal ritual is shaped by a migration process that induced her to approach the indigenous communities of her homeland, Sinaloa, Mexico.
Trailer: Paul Glavinski
The Deer Dance is a ritual dance performed by the Mayo-Yoreme at their traditional celebrations, a mixture of Catholicism and indigenous worldview. The mayo-yoreme are organized in Ceremonial Centers located in Sinaloa and Sonora, in Northwestern Mexico. Their language, Yoremnoki, is being displaced from everyday life but not from their perception of the world. The Juya Ania , “the world of the primeval forest” in the Yoreme language, represents a symbolic place where both material and spiritual resources are preserved. The stories about that place inspired Michelle Félix to create her first contemporary dance piece, in which she reflects her initiation experience into the Deer Dance: A collective experience archived and transmitted through the body.
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