Today we’d like to introduce you to Paty Lorena Solórzano.
Paty Lorena, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Morelia, a beautiful colonial city in the Mexican state of Michoacán, characterized by it’s colonial architecture of pink cantera stone, avocados, and the Oyamel forest where the Monarch Butterflies migrate to every winter.
My mother tells a story of when I was a baby—that I would squirm around as if something was itching my body. One my great aunts noticed and asked, “What’s wrong with the baby!?” My mother answered simply, “Oh, she’s just dancing.” As far as origin stories go, I think it makes perfect sense. Dancing and creating are very much like an itch! I feel it and I can’t sit still. Maybe because of that, or more likely because I begged her, my mother decided to enroll me in dance classes at the local Casa de Cultura, a community-based public center that is a staple of every city across Mexico. I began taking lessons in Spanish dance, along with some foklórico and ballet from Beatriz Amelio, who was an exceptional dancer and local dance legend. At the same time, I was a quiet child who loved to draw, was fascinated by plants and science, and captivated by stories in the books I read. Both my grandmother and mother instilled in me me a deep appreciation for nature through the care my grandmother had in her tiny garden, and my mom often taking my sisters and me on hikes—something that would influence my work later on.
When I was about age 11, my family immigrated to the United States. We didn’t have many resources at that time, but my mother tried very hard to keep me taking dance classes whenever she could. However, it wasn’t until I moved to Houston my sophomore year of high school, that I began training seriously in ballet at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Webster, TX. I joined the dance school’s pre-professional dance company Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre, and I was part of my high school’s dance/drill team. Truly, the reason I kept dancing was through a huge family financial effort—something I never take for granted.
I loved dance so much that I decided to purse it further as an undergraduate at Texas Christian University. I didn’t have any idea about dancing in college, much less did my mom! I remember I saw an ad for TCU in a Dance Magazine I had been gifted. I begged my mother to take me to their audition, and she took off work at a great expense and drove me to Fort Worth. I got into TCU with an academic scholarship, and 4 years later graduated with a BFA in Modern Dance and minors in Latin American History and Studio Art. In my Honors thesis I wrote and danced about nostalgia and the Mexican immigrant experience. Probably every other dance I’ve made has grown out of this initial inquietude to reconcile with the implications of uprooting and transplanting.
After graduation, I danced in Houston for Sophia Torres of Psophonia Dance and Earthen Vessels: The Sandra Organ Dance Company. I interned at Hope Stone, and took classes at Houston Metropolitan Dance Center. Later, I moved to Michigan and danced for various Detroit based artists. But it wasn’t long before I realized that what I really wanted to do was to choreograph my own work. At the encouragement of Professor Jessica Fogel at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, I applied to their MFA program in Dance Choreography & Performance. I have to thank my mentors and teachers at Michigan for introducing me to artists and scholars expanding choreography and dance thought. Namely, Jennifer Monson, Petra Kuppers and jill sigman, artists that have been working deeply for years on dance and environmental research, and have been huge inspirations for me. I received my MFA in 2015 with my thesis focusing on experimental choreographic practices intersecting dance and ecology. Since receiving my MFA, I’ve lived in New York, Jerusalem, Puebla and presented choreography nationally and internationally in the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the UK. My work as a choreographer has also evolved with my most recent projects becoming multidisciplinary, research-based choreographic investigations on the ecological, metaphorical and sociological aspects of Monarch Butterflies and the wisdom of plants labeled as “weeds.”
After serving 4 years at the Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico as a professor and Artistic Director of the DanzaUDLAP company, I moved back to Houston in 2024. Since then, I’ve been extremely fortunate to have found a community that has inspired me and in turn supported me. I have the most to thank the people at Houston Met Dance, Dance Source Houston, Frame Dance and Nameless Sound for giving me platforms to dance and/or present my work in this city.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My journey has never been smooth, but despite any hardships it has also been very beautiful! A life in art teaches you to see the beauty even in the most difficult or mundane. As for the struggles, for better or worse, they are what have given me grit and what brought me to where I am today—from the ordeal of being an immigrant child and dealing with cultural differences, to the financial hurdles growing up, personal heartbreaks and emotional ups and downs. And that’s just normal life! As a working class artist, rejection and lack of financial and structural support are things I deal with often. Growing up in dance, I didn’t have the tools I have now to advocate for myself when I felt overlooked or wronged. It’s through persistence, insistence and resistance—much like a weedy plant— that I’ve kept going. I can’t even say that I have always believed in myself (because there have been plenty of doubts along the way!), but I have always believed in the work I do, and I’ve had people around me that believed in me when I didn’t. I think that leaning on family, friendships and finding (or creating!) community, has been the key to any successes I’ve had. In dance and in life there are no solos, we all thrive through mutual care.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My choreographic work researches embodied ecology, migration and connection to place through improvisation, multidisciplinary collaborative practice and experimental choreography. I make dances and performances that are thoughtful, conceptual, sprinkled with a bit of whimsy for the stage, film and alternative sites. Drawing, writing and dance film are also part of my creative practice and you’ll often hear my poetry in my performances. I like to dive deep into research on subjects that are complex in their scope and could be tackled from different perspectives: ecology, science, social aspects, and, of course, artistic metaphors!
I’m most proud of my two recent projects:
Danzas Migratorias: Choreography for the Monarch Butterfly, a site-adaptive, improvisation based work that explores the body as an archive of migration in relationship with the Monarch butterfly’s cultural and ecological significance. For this project, I traveled to the Monarch Butterfly reserves in my home in Michoacán, Mexico to talk to scientists, work with local protectors, and to closely study the Monarchs in a multi-year investigation has yielded a series of itinerant dances, writing, collaborations and embodied ecology workshops.
Meanwhile, in La Maleza: Weeds as Teachers, the project I am currently developing, I relate to the wisdom and resilience of plants labeled as “weeds,” as a metaphor for the experience of uprooted people and as a way to restore devotion to nature, and to harness power and healing from displacement. This work, a collaboration between Minneapolis based visual artist and writer Nicole Sara Simpkins and Houston-based sound artist and composer Anthony Almendárez, will premiere as an installation and performance at the Houston Met Dance in November of this year.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
As I mentioned before, I love to collaborate! I’m truly believe that an artist is as good as the community they’re part of. I feel so fortunate to be among many incredible artists working in this city, and you can often find me in the studio with other dancers, musicians and visual artists. If you’d like to support, you can come to my upcoming, evening-length show premiering at the Houston Met Dance November 6 & 7. Other ways to support are by coming to take a workshop or dance class I lead! I also encourage you to attend programming and donate to the organizations that give platforms to artists like me: Houston Met Dance, Dance Source Houston, and Nameless Sound or stay up to date on my social media IG @patygirasola
Pricing:
- $50-$100 for private dance or yoga class
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.girasoladances.com/
- Instagram: @patygirasola
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patysolorzanodance/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@patygirasola/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/patysolorzano or https://www.metdance.org/paty-lorena-solrzano
