Mexico in the mix

Imagine the raw energy of hip hop dance with a choreographic finesse— Victor Quijada’s got the know-how to make it work. As founder and dancer of the Rubberbandance Group, Quijada and his company take hip hop dance to a different level.

“We explore hip hop and what else it can do—we’re breaking barriers,” says Quijada, who was born in Los Angeles to Mexican parents and has been breakdancing since the age of eight. After dancing with the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble and Twyla Tharp, he landed in Montreal to dance with Les Grands Ballets Candiens as a demi-soloist. Using his experience in various types of dance, Quijada concocts a style that is all his own.
In his quartet Tender Loving Care, based on Quijada’s personal experiences with relationships, dancers gracefully twist themselves into Gumby-like contortions to an eclectic soundtrack of Vivaldi, Rachmaninov, and Medeski Martin and Wood. Mexican choreographer and dancer Isabel Romero also contributes to this noche latina, using the metaphor of the egg. Her curious piece, appropriately named The Egg, questions desire, hope, maternity and birth in a theatrical manner. This double bill opens Tangente’s Danza! Dança!, a series of choreographies with Latin connections. At 840 Cherrier, May 2–4, 8:30 p.m., May 5, 7:30 p.m. Info: 525-5584. :

—Marites Carino