Ritual and transformation: Salome Nieto’s collaborative choreography by Tessa Perkins Deneault
With a strong butoh influence, Salome Nieto’s works are grounded in a sense of life and death, of rebirth and transformation, and intense spirituality. She has been an integral part of the
via religious iconography and Mexico’s Realismo Magico (magical realism), which was most evident as Nieto embodies the female deity Tonantzin or Virgin of Guadalupe, who
Vancouver dance scene for over 30 years as a choreographer, teacher and performer.
represents the convergence of two distinct belief systems. The work was performed in a traditional theatre setting as well as a sitespecific venue that allowed audiences to become part of the ritual.
Before launching her performance and teaching career in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Nieto studied ballet and modern dance in Mexico City. In 1992, she immigrated to Vancouver and began studying under Barbara Bourget at Kokoro Dance. She continues her work as a teacher and choreographer while working with companies including Kokoro, Raven Spirit Dance, and Donna Redlick Dance. In 2013, Nieto co-founded pataSola dance and has performed her works in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Thailand. The Vancouver International Dance Festival recognized her contribution to contemporary dance in 2017 with their choreographic award. Nieto recently completed her Master of Fine Arts at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Inspired by intersectional feminism and cultural blending, her research explores ritual and ceremony in contemporary dance. Her 2011 solo work Camino al Tepeyac explored these themes 16
Dance Central Winter 2024
Similarly, Nieto’s MFA thesis, The 13th Chronicle, presented as a public performance in June 2023, is a site-specific work that invites the audience to participate in a ritual that travels the halls of the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. When she began her master’s program, Nieto felt like there were certain spaces in the building that were off limits, and it took her some time to settle into the space. This prompted her to conceive of her thesis as a sort of transgression into the space or a disruption of space. The audience arrives in the lobby where the piece begins before it moves through the building. “I felt that it would be interesting to interrupt this informal gathering, when everybody arrives to a performance, you are mingling, you're chatting, you're meeting your friends, and you're relaxed; I wanted to interrupt that with my presence,” she says. The audience
