Dance on the path of life.

• Author: Snow, Mitchell
• Position: Taller Coreografico

FOR OVER TWO DECADES, MEXICO'S TALLER COREOGRAFICO AND ITS FOUNDER, GLORIA CONTRERAS, HAVE BEEN CHALLENGING AUDIENCES WITH THEIR EVER-NEW NOTIONS OF THE BALLET

The people in line outside the Sala Miguel Convarrubias at the Centro Cultural Universitario of the Universided Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) seem an unlikely collection. One man identifies himself as the butcher from the local market, another is a computer programmer working in international telecommunications. Another, a housewife, explains why she made the three-hour trek across the city with her young daughter. For her, as for the others in line, a Sunday afternoon without a concert of neoclassical ballet by the UNAM's Taller Coreografico (Choreographic Workshop) would be unthinkable.

The tickets, at about ten dollars each (half that for students and laborers), place some of the most exciting dance available anywhere in the America's within reach of almost anyone. The response has been tremendous. Over its twenty-four years, the Taller has established itself as the ballet company for everyone. The dancers wouldn't have it any other way.

Families are a common sight at their concerts. The company views its preteen public as a vital part of its future. Like many of the elements that combine to form the Taller, its audience challenges stereotypical notions about the ballet. Much to their delight, the dancers of the Taller are just as likely to overhear conversations about their latest premieres on the bus as they are to read about them in the city's cultural supplements. Their schedule has carried them to schools, public parks, even jails, to show that ballet--ballet without storybook settings, elaborate costumes, or traditional music--can speak directly to the soul of contemporary Mexico.

Every season, the Taller presents a number of new works to encourage its audience to keep coming back for more. While the Taller is decidedly populist in its approach, its musical choices are intentionally challenging. A typical concert is just as likely to contain music by the cerebral Alban Berg as it is to feature Bizet's saucy "Carmen Suite." The chamber-sized company--it consists of only fourteen full-time dancers--has presented nearly two hundred different ballets. It maintains an active repertory of over eighty-five works set to music ranging from fourteenth-century chants to the latest compositions from Mexico's avant garde. The group's devoted fans can attend an entire four-month season and rarely see the same work twice.

Like any ballet company, however, the Taller has its stock of ballets. Programs dedicated exclusively to the music of Igor Stravinsky are highlights of every season. Its annual Day of the Dead concerts, featuring works like Mozart's Requiem, also are a major draw. Perhaps its most popular presentation is dedicated to works by Mexican composers. The Taller has preserved classics from Mexico's golden age of modern dance, such as Farnesio de Bernal's "Los Gallos," among its offerings, as well as Artistic Director Gloria Contreras's own works. Her Imagenes del Quinto Sol (Images of the Fifth Sun), a retelling of Aztec creation myths with an evocative score by Federico Ibarra, was originally created for the Compania National de Danza. Even restaged for the much smaller Taller, it retains its elemental force and immense popularity.

More than any other ballet, Contreras's "Huapango," set to Pablo Moncayo's energetic music has come to exemplify the Taller's exuberant spirit The Mexico City premiere of "Huapango" caused a minor uproar in the Palacio de Bellas Aries. Traditionalists were shocked that this most Mexican of all musical compositions had...