APAPACHO

Apapacho is a Nahuatl word that means a soul care

As a bi-cultural (US/MX) dance company working across borders, our artwork is embedded in ongoing creative practices of community-responsive listening and exchange in both Mexico and the US.  ​​After 27 years of dedication as DANCE MONKS (Est. 1999), we are now envisioning mobile sanctuaries for creative expression and wellness as bridges of care between the two countries, especially for those who have not been traditionally honored. 
 
Currently, through APAPACHO, our vision is inspired by Folk and Indigenous practices of community organizing to create international sanctuaries for gathering, creative expression, wellness/care, dance, and interdisciplinary art making. As part of this project, we offer farmworker and underserved families culturally relevant wellness services and art/movement workshops for FREE or by donation (subsidized). We have also created a multilingual mobile library with a focused on books in Spanish and Indigenous languages including Maam, Zapoteco, Mixteco, Nahuatl, Otomi, and Mayan. Looking ahead, we envision establishing a small community Milpa (traditional Mexican farming method) and Tianguis (market) to foster economic agency and support in underserved communities.  
 
APAPACHO honors immigrants' vital contributions while providing needed spaces to rest and dream, recover ancestral memory, and ignite the renewal of sacred ways of being and relating to the body and the land. During times of environmental and social crisis, it is essential to listen to the voices of those who have not been traditionally heard and whose stories hold knowledge vital for these times.  ​

APAPACHO returns to some of the questions that we were asking in past works, Tlaoli: People of the Corn (2016) and Breathe Here: Respira Aqui (2023), about migration, vulnerability/exploitation, cultural displacement, and amnesia, while working with the arts and traditional wellness practices to spark needed change.
 

DANCE MONKS | APAPACHO Daily Practice with the Tonalpohualli