Rituales de Extinción - Danza Opera - Bogotá

The Danza Ópera Rituales de Extinción (Extinction Rituals Dance Opera), created by Ximena Garnica (Colombia) and Shige Moriya (Japan) in creative complicity with composer and singer Carolina Oliveros (Colombia), the performers of the LEIMAY Ensemble, and in collaboration with artists, 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)— had its world premiere on November 14, 15, and 16, 2025, at the Centro Nacional de las Artes Delia Zapata Olivella in Bogotá.

This multidimensional creation weaves bodies, music, and images in a sensorial 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 waste crisis in the Pacific; the defense of Bogotá’s 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 singers such as Carolina Oliveros and Fernanda Tenorio, percussionist Wilmar Guzmán, and musician and sound engineer Juan Manuel Pacheco, who articulate voices and sonorities from the Pacific and the Caribbean in a living bridge between the ancestral and the contemporary.

The Rituales de Extinción project has deployed rhizomatic branches, such as the video installation triptych that premiered in Colombia as part of the Danza en la Ciudad Festival.