Eighth generation Chimayó weaver inspires contemporary dance at NHCC

On Saturday, Aug. 2, New Mexico’s acclaimed Zeitgeist Dance Theatre will present an evening of dance at the National Hispanic Cultural Center inspired by the contemporary textile art of Emily Trujillo.

An eighth-generation Chimayó weaver, Trujillo has been praised for her radically contemporary designs that nevertheless remain rooted in her family’s centuries-old tradition.

“The tradition is something I'm well versed in. I was born into it. It's a huge part of me, and it feels welcoming to me. It accepts me. So, I can exist within this tradition, however I interpret it, and I can add whatever I want to add, and it's still a part of me, and it's still a part of my family,” Trujillo said. “I don't know how to explain that without it sounding kind of mumbo jumbo-y, but it's like, it's me — I am this tradition — but I am also a person who has a completely different life, with completely different experiences and influences than even my parents had.”

Some of those influences include Asian pop culture, such as anime and K-pop.

“I’ve woven pieces based off of my favorite anime characters. My favorite character of all time is Naruto, and I wove a piece with colors and symbols, like arrows, that people associate with him,” Trujillo said. “My signature is actually a reference to an ice skating anime, called ‘Yuri on Ice.’”

Zeitgeist’s co-artistic directors, Francisco Gella and Yusha-Marie Sorzano, wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Santa Fe’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City for Craft and Folk Art by highlighting the work of a New Mexican artist who’s pushing craft traditions in exciting new directions. Their new full-length dance piece, “Lineage,” translates aspects of Trujillo’s biography and artistry into dance.

“When I met Emily in her studio, she talked so much about repetition, harmony, design, improvisation, rhythm and also allowing for unpredictable elements to influence her work,” Gella said.

Clips from Gella and Sorzano’s interview with Trujillo will be projected behind the dancers during key moments of “Lineage.”

“She's really, really inspired by K-pop music, which I thought was really out of the box,” Gella said.

One of Trujillo’s pieces, titled “Taste the Tempest,” was inspired by the music video for the K-pop band Tempest’s song, “Taste the Feeling.”

“It follows the flow, the energy of the song,” Trujillo said. “The busyness (of the pattern) goes in time with the movement of the dancers.”

Gella and Sorzano were surprised at how much Trujillo was already thinking about dance in relation to her weaving practice.

“When she talked about process, repetition and harmony, she literally said the word ‘choreography’ in the interview,” Gella said.

Trujillo’s parents, Lisa and Irvin Trujillo, are esteemed weavers who brought modern aesthetics to the Chimayó tradition, but they still generally work from prepared designs.

“Emily does everything through improvisation,” Gella said. “She might pick the colors depending on what mood she’s in or what song she’s listening to, and then she determines the patterns of what goes next and how she layers them.”

“We have also been using improvisation to come up with the movement vocabulary for this work,” Gella continued. “It’s been a really fun, collaborative process where we try a movement, the dancers then will add on to it, or Yusha and I will layer it. So, similar to Emily, the parallel there is that we use improvisation to find the movements and create the vocabulary that will compose the entire piece.”

Sorzano also identifies with the bold blending of cultures in Trujillo’s work.

“I think it’s really important to talk about the lineages that Francisco and I come from, both as human beings and as choreographers,” Sorzano said. “We’re both island people. Francisco is from the Philippines, and I’m from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. And with both of us being immigrants and finding dance at a young age, we’ve always kind of lived on the outskirts (of mainstream culture) with a sense of a rebel energy. We’re not necessarily what you think you’re going to get from a culture, because we’re a hodgepodge of cultures.”

As a dancer, Sorzano has performed with renowned companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. But her choreography draws on many sources.

“We relate to Emily’s bravery and her contemporary risk-taking sensibility, because we are similar,” Sorzano said. “We don’t have one style of choreography that we use. We’re rooted in our training in classical ballet and modern forms and social dances of our cultures, and we revere and respect them. But as we move forward as makers, we’re always finding ways of bridging these languages to make new sentences.”

“Lineage” promises to be visually spellbinding. In one section, the dancers will interact with 15-foot-wide panels attached to dowels, mimicking the movements of a giant loom.

Zeitgeist’s executive director, Jeffrey Hoffman, said the company chose the National Hispanic Cultural Center as the evening’s venue, in part, to highlight the significance of weaving across the entire state.

“Even though Santa Fe is the city that’s been designated specifically by UNESCO as a Creative City, the art of weaving is very much associated, in a broader way, with New Mexico as a whole,” Hoffman said. “Emily actually practices in her studio in the city of Albuquerque, so there’s direct connections all the way from Chimayó in northern New Mexico all the way down to Albuquerque.”

Zeitgeist’s concert is the culmination of the 2025 New Century Dance Project, an annual, week-long dance festival and incubator for emerging talent.

Before Gella and Sorzano’s presentation of “Lineage,” three other acclaimed choreographers – Noelle Keyser, Joshua Whitehead and Rhaine Marquardt – will present short dance pieces of their own.

Over the course of the evening, four principal dancers will be joined by approximately 70 up-and-coming dancers from around the world.

“I’m very excited to actually see it when it’s all put together,” Trujillo said. “The dancers are doing some amazing things. I know, because they’ve been sending me clips. But there’s definitely some surprises left.”

Eighth generation Chimayo weaver inspires contemporary dance at NHCC

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