DANCE IN THE DESERT | Yvonne Montoya

PROJECTS

Dance in the Desert: Where Community Moves Together uplifts dance in the Southwest by connecting dancers across geographies and centering local expertise. Dance in the Desert 2025 is a binational multistate research initiative.

Dance in the Desert is founded and organized by Yvonne Montoya.

Special thank you to Liz Lerman LLC, project partner and co-organizer of the gathering from 2018-2022.

Dance in the Desert: Then & Now

2025 Research

The 2025 iteration of Dance in the Desert ushers in a new round of research regarding dance communities in Arizona and beyond. Activities include conducting surveys and one-on-one interviews with former Dance in the Desert participants to gather insights on the past impact of the program. New this year, Dance in the Desert will interview dance artists in New Mexico as we explore the possibilities of expanding Dance in the Desert to our neighboring state. We look forward to learning about the strengths and needs of Southwest dance communities.

2022 Douglas & Agua Prieta

After a two year hiatus for the pandemic, Dance in the Desert returned May 2022 with an in person gathering and binational dance exchange that took place in Douglas, AZ and Agua Prieta, Sonora, México. The gathering featured professional development workshops and master dance classes of various dance styles on both sides of the border. Master classes were free and open to the Douglas and Agua Prieta communities.

2021 Remote

In 2021, the Dance in the Desert community met virtually in a series of quarterly online Happy Hours. During the Happy Hours, dancers shared resources including information about upcoming grants, online performances, calls for artists, and the like. Each Happy Hour ended with a short dance class led by a member of the Dance in the Desert community.

2020 Remote

Dance in the Desert 2020 was set to be the first binational gathering originally scheduled to take place the first weekend of May in Douglas, AZ and Agua Prieta, Sonora, México. However, due to COVID19, the gathering was postponed until May 2022.

Instead of an in person gathering, Dance in the Desert 2020 offered a series of free professional development webinars. To view those webinars, click here.

2020 Tucson

Dancemakers from across Arizona gathered in Tucson from May 15-19, 2019, for the second annual convening of Dance in the Desert.

This was a unique opportunity for dancemakers and choreographers from the Arizona Latine dance community to come together with dancers from throughout the state to deepen relationships, and incubate new work.

The gathering featured workshops by renown choreographer Liz Lerman.

2018 Phoenix

The inaugural Dance in the Desert brought Latine dance professionals from around the nation together for a three-day gathering in Phoenix, AZ on April 26-28, 2018.

The first every gathering included a choreographer’s jam, meetings among dancemakers and arts administrators, and focus groups. The three-day convening concluded with a community share-out and public reception.

Funders Credit

Dance in the Desert 2025 was supported by the Mellon Foundation. It is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through their grants, they seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.