Celebrate Mexico Now Festival

FAMILY DAY. ALICIA, EL BALLET Y YO 

11:30 AM 

TESOROS DE MEXICO 

3:00 PM 

ALICIA, EL BALLET Y YO 

A story told in Spanish about a girl’s journey learning the history of ballet comes to life through movement and an interactive experience for the audience. Presented by Reyna Pérez, author of the book Alicia, el ballet y yo (Alicia, ballet and me). Ms. Perez is a ballet pedagogue and ballet coach for Mexico’s National Ballet Company. This work features projected book visuals with English subtitles. 

Reyna Pérez trained in ballet at the Mexican Dance Academy and graduated from a BSc in Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has been a dander, taught and created works for Ballet Clásico de México, Mexican Dance Academy, Ballet Independiente, Emma Pulido, Mexico’s National Dance Company and The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, among others. From 1980 to 1982, she was awarded a scholarship for postgraduate studies in ballet pedagogy at The Bolshoi Ballet Academy. She has been a guest artist in Bolivia, Bulgaria and Costa Rica, and a teacher, consultant for festivals and schools, and grant juror for Mexico’s National Endowment for Arts and Culture (FONCA). In 2022, she founded Ardentía Dance Company, which she still directs. In 2003, she published Alicia, el ballet y yo (Alicia, ballet and me). Pérez has received multiple awards such as Una vida en la danza (A Lifetime in Dance Award) and the Xochipilli Award. She is currently a teacher and régisseur at Mexico’s National Dance Company. 

TESOROS DE MEXICO 

Pianist Cesar Reyes presents “Treasures of Mexico.” A cultural and didactic journey through Mexico’s musical works for the piano: Dances, Sandungas, Rhapsodies, and Ballads. The history, customs, and traditions of Mexico are combined In these musical gems from the Revolution to the present day. 

“Recipient of the 2020-2023 Performing Artists with Trajectory Program of the System of Support for Creation and Cultural Projects (SACPC).” 

César Reyes is a prominent advocate for Mexican and Latin American music. Reyes has performed on stages such as Carnegie Hall, Palacio de Bellas Artes, and Teatro de las Artes, and performed at Switzerland’s Semaine Internationale de Piano et de Musique de Chambre. He has been invited to give lecture-recitals for the Society for American Music, American Musicological Society, Yale University, State University of New York, University of New Mexico, and Conservatoire cantonal du Valais, Switzerland. Reyes is the visionary behind the New York Festival of Piano and Latin American Song. Reyes refined his skills at the National Conservatory of Music, National Arts Center, and City University of New York, mentored by Cuban educator German Diez, linked to Claudio Arrau. Currently honored in the 2020-2023 Program for Established Performers by the Support Program for Creation and Cultural Projects (SACPC), Reyes leads a project that spotlights Mexican piano repertoire nationwide.