Patchogue Arts Council & Patchogue Theatre present

Mayan Magic with DZUL Dance

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Honoring Mexican & Mayan Culture Through Choreography

Patchogue Arts Council Museum of Contemporary Art L.I in partnership with the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts is proud to present the world premiere of Mayan Magic with DZUL Dance.

Join us pre-show in the lobby for;

•A special exhibition in the Lobby Arts Gallery curated by the Patchogue Arts Council
•Local Hispanic businesses and organizations
•Family friendly activities inspired by the performance, provided by Patchogue–Medford Library
•Mask presentation from Mayan Magic

Dzul Dance’s repertoire is designed as an autobiographical, physical narrative that explores pre-Hispanic Mexican and Mayan culture through the eyes of Artistic Director, Javier Dzul - one of the few contemporary Mayan choreographers in the world. Utilizing elements of dance, physical theatre, contortion and various circus apparatuses, Dzul Dance manipulates space vertically, horizontally and everywhere in between in an attempt to carve out the stories of one of history’s most revered and mysterious indigenous civilizations.

Serving as a visual memoir, the repertoire introduces the real-life experiences Javier encountered whilst assimilating to modernized society. The reflection of these experiences in the work highlights the inherent trials and tribulations of being faced with a new, colonization induced world that creates a challenging dichotomy of two very opposing concepts of life and culture. The work also serves as a pathway by which to acknowledge how Mayan heritage helped shape Javier’s understanding of life, art, magic, tradition, honor, relationships, love and his position in the universe.

Dzul’s work visually and physically transforms a performance space, inviting the audience to be transported into the story and its exploration of the archetypal universality of the human condition. As such, there is access for an individual from any cultural background or identity to connect a part of themselves to the life of the Mayan – especially Javier’s journey - and potentially find awe-inspiring moments of this multifaceted, physical fantasia. Dzul Dance is in service of paying homage to, honoring and holding space for indigenous and ancestral history, as this is the foundation upon which we’ve built who we are today. It has been known in Mayan teachings that their prophecies and insights foreshadow what may be to come. With that in mind, Dzul Dance offers us a chance to beget rediscovery of our most primal, basic and necessary principals of living life by reintroducing cognizance that we, as one human race, come from common roots, are able to identify where we are presently, and can perhaps take a moment to consider what we want collectively for the future.

This special performance is made possible with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts awarded to the Patchogue Arts Council for 2022 programming.

www.dzuldance.org