The Dance Opera Extinction Rituals, created by Ximena Garnica (Colombia) and Shige Moriya (Japan) in creative complicity with the LEIMAY Ensemble, alongside artists, traditional female singers, and musicians from the Colombian Atlantic and Pacific regions, as well as communities of artists, knowledge-keepers, youth, and children from Guapi, Tumaco, Bogotá (Colombia), Shiretoko (Japan), and New York (USA), will have its world premiere at the Centro Nacional de las Artes Delia Zapata Olivella in Bogotá.

This multidimensional creation brings together bodies, music, and images in a sensory journey that honors the memory of species, ecosystems, and ancestral knowledge. The work draws inspiration from territories and issues such as the threats looming over Gorgona Island, the mangroves of Tumaco, and the garbage crisis in the Pacific; the defense of the Bogotá wetlands and the vitality of urban gardens; and expands towards the echoes of other species and traditions at risk in Japan and New York. More than a literal representation, it is a poetic evocation: an act that celebrates what is already lost and embraces what still resists the risk of disappearance.

For this premiere, the work brings together members of the LEIMAY Ensemble in Colombia and New York: Amaru Zárate Chaparro, David Suárez Bejarano, Alexis Sanchez, Masanori Asahara, and Krystel Mazzeo, alongside musician and dancer Jimmy Mancilla Caicedo (Escuela Tejiendo Saberes). The musical dimension is led by traditional female singers such as Carolina Oliveros and Fernanda Tenorio, percussionist Wilmar Guzmán, and musician and sound engineer Juan Manuel Pacheco, who articulate voices and sounds from the Pacific and Caribbean into a living bridge between the ancestral and the contemporary.

The Extinction Rituals project has developed rhizomatic branches, such as the video installation triptych that will premiere in Colombia as part of the Danza en la Ciudad Festival.

This Dance Opera is supported by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Knowledge of Colombia through the 2025 National Stimulus Program – Grant from the National Arts Center for the creation and circulation of an interdisciplinary live arts work. It also has international support from Creative Capital (USA) and is co-produced by the LEIMAY Corporation (Colombia) and LEIMAY (New York).

 

In Person Event