TANIA PÉREZ-SALAS
Tania Pérez-Salas was born in Mexico City. From an early age, she showed a strong inclination toward the arts and physical expression. Her formal dance education began at the Coyoacán Academy and continued through workshops with prominent teachers such as Ana del Castillo, Hebert Darien, Rosario Armenta, Miguel Ángel Palmeros, and Xavier Francis, with whom she studied for eight consecutive years. She also trained in flamenco under Mercedes Amaya for five years, an experience that enriched her expressive and technical range.
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By the early 1990s, her dedication to dance had earned her national recognition. In 1993, Pérez-Salas received the National Dance Prize for Best Female Performer, followed by the Virginia Fábregas Awards for Best Dancer and Best Choreographer, as well as the National and Continental Choreography Prizes in 1994.
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That same year, driven by the desire to develop her own creative language, she founded the Tania Pérez-Salas Company in Mexico City. The company quickly distinguished itself for its originality, strong visual aesthetics, and technical precision, becoming one of the most important contemporary dance ensembles in Mexico.
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During the following decade, Pérez-Salas consolidated her reputation both nationally and internationally. In collaboration with the National Dance Company of Mexico, she premiered Catorce Dieciséis (2002) and Entre el Cielo y la Tierra (2003) at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, two works that reflected her refined sense of movement and theatricality.
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Her international projection grew steadily. Her company was invited to prestigious festivals around the world, including the Biennale de la Danse in Lyon, Jacob’s Pillow Festival in the United States, the Fall for Dance Festival in New York, the Shanghai International Festival, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. They also appeared at major cultural events such as the Festival Internacional Cervantino, CINARS in Montreal, and the Internationale Tanzmesse in Düsseldorf.
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Throughout her career, Pérez-Salas has created a repertoire characterized by poetic imagery and thematic depth. Among her most celebrated works are Las Aguas del Olvido (1998), The Hours (2001), Visitor (2002), Ex-Stasis (2010), Macho Man XXI (2016), and Religare (2018). Each piece explores different aspects of the human condition—identity, gender, resilience, and spirituality—through a language that merges physical precision and emotional power.
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In 2016, she premiered Macho Man XXI at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a groundbreaking piece that denounced gender violence and challenged social stereotypes. Two years later, in 2018, she celebrated her company’s 25th anniversary with the creation of Religare, a work centered on connection, community, and spirituality.
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Her artistic influence extended internationally in 2018, when her choreography Catorce Dieciséis entered the repertoire of Ballet Hispánico and premiered at The Joyce Theater in New York, marking a milestone in her international career.
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In 2024, Pérez-Salas was a finalist at the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice, further cementing her position as one of Mexico’s most significant contemporary dance figures.
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Across more than three decades of creation, Tania Pérez-Salas has forged a distinctive choreographic voice—visceral, theatrical, and poetic—that transcends borders and continues to inspire new generations of artists around the world.
As a leading advocate and spokesperson for contemporary dance in Mexico, Tania Pérez-Salas was invited by Canal 22, a television network dedicated to educational and cultural programming, to produce and host “Juego de Cuerpos” (Body Games), a weekly series on dance.
Ms. Pérez-Salas has been jury of the National Prize for the Arts and Science; Councillor Citizen of Mexico’s City Government; member of the Commission of Culture for the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA); Internal Member of the College of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA); Jury of the fellowship program of the National System of Artistic Creators (Sistema Nacional de Creadores).; Jury for the studies aboard scholarships of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA); Jury of the International Award for Choreography San Luis Potosi and Jury of the “70 Grandes de México” (the 70 major choreographers of the Twentieth Century in Mexico).
Her work is based on universal topics, which she presents from an unique perspective. For example, in Biography of desire (Biografía del Deseo) she presents a satire on technology; the dimensions of death and life is inherent in Visitor (Visitante); in The Hours (Las Horas) she questions femininity; love and sensuality are the themes of Anabiosis; wáter with its infinite power of conveying metaphors and images was the inspiration for The Waters of Forgetfulness (Las Aguas del Olvido); the revival of the famous literature as in Clodia the Impudent (Clodia la Impúdica) among others.
In her 2016 creation Macho Man XXI, is a work that displays the issue of gender violence, taking place in the chaotic, surreal and exotic Mexican culture.
In her lates creation 2018 Religare she received with her Company a recognition from the Ministry of the Arts and Culture for 25 years of uninterrupted national and international performances.
