The Gods Are Laughing At Us: The Ongoing Water Crisis in Mexico
Creator, Choreographer, Performer
Presented at: The George Washington University (Washington, DC; 2023), WAXworks Festival (New York, NY; 2018), Triskelion Arts (New York, NY; 2018), Unity Space AiR at Gertrude St. Yoga Studio (Melbourne, Australia; 2017)
The Gods Are Laughing At Us is a solo creation Felicia developed about the ongoing water crisis in Mexico. The disastrous climate change situation has brought on a number of serious threats to the citizens of Mexico. These threats come in many forms such as floods and droughts and Avalos intended to find ways to incorporate the hardships the people of Mexico have to endure with this catastrophe, with her personal aesthetic. After learning about Tláloc, the Aztec rain god, Felicia felt it was extremely crucial and necessary to include this character, along with traditional rain dance movements. These examples, as well as many others, are what inspired her to create this project. She was invited to be guest choreographer at The George Washington University in the spring of 2023, where she set this solo on eight dancers.
19,000 Untested Kits
Creator, Choreographer, Performer
Presented at: Washington Square Park (New York, NY; 2021) for New York University Arts Politics MA program.
In October 2020 there was a women’s reproductive rights protest which ended in Washington Square Park. For Karen Finley’s Colloquium course, students were assigned to create a response of any kind to Washington Square Park. Being from Texas and very moved by the women’s protest to assure the women of Texas that we were there for them, Felicia felt it was her duty to create her response on the topic of the abortion ban and the thousands of untested rape kits that continue to sit on the shelves.
Runway to the Border
Creator, Interviewer, Designer
Project made possible by Hear Us Awards at New York University, 2022
Runway to the Border is an immigrant fashion show which has been a vision of Felicia’s since 2018 after working with radical Mexican American performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his company, La Pocha Nostra, in Mexico City. We have heard of the perilous journey people take when crossing either the desert or river to arrive in the United States. However Avalos was interested in the details of the clothing and essentials crossers have with them and how they decide what to take with them, knowing they may never return to their country.
Las Pizcas
Creator, Choreographer, Performer
Presented at: Center of Performance Research (New York, NY; 2019), Your Move Dance Festival (New York, NY; 2018), Movement Research at Judson Church (New York, NY; 2017), Dance Place (Washington, DC; 2015)
Las Pizcas is an excerpt from the full length work The Beast: A Daughter's Document of an Undocumented Journey which was presented as a MFA thesis project at The George Washington University. This excerpt follows Avalos's father when he worked as a migrant farmworker picking fruits and vegetables in California. Felicia transformed this solo into a quartet once moving to New York in 2018.
Dancers: Mario Flores, Yuritzi Govea, Stefanie Spiece, and Felicia B Avalos
Videographer: Justin Woo
The Beast: A Daughter’s Document of an Undocumented Journey
Creator, Choreographer, Performer
Presented at: Dance Loft on 14 (Washington, DC; 2015)
Told through her father’s personal story, The Beast is focused on the endurance of Mexican and Central American immigrants who attempt to cross the Mexico and United States border. This five-part narrative takes the audience on an emotional journey with the performer as she examines and endures the many complexities of the work ethic she inherited from her father, as he contrived the means of attaining citizenship. The Beast takes the viewers through training in the Mexican army, migrant farming in California, and the mercury mines of Nevada.
Her father, Raúl Avalos, born in Ciudad Juárez across the border of El Paso, Texas, had the dream of coming to the United States to become a citizen, receive a university degree, and vote; all of which he has accomplished.
Videographer: David Campbell
theHook
Creator, Videographer
Created at: Beta Academy (Washington, DC; 2014)
theHook was a final project for the first semester course Dance in the Media of the MFA Dance Program at The George Washington University. With Avalos's non traditional pairings of movements, she fused together boxing and tango to discover the similarities of the two and found there was more in common than just a hook.
Huge thanks to movers from the DC tango community: Phil Jones & Carlos Angulo for being apart of this experimental process.
Additional Pieces:
Limonada Amarga (NYU course by Anna Deavere Smith; 2022)
Tequila (NYU course by Anna Deavere Smith; 2022)
Untitled (Project for Summer Virtual Dance Festival with T2 Dance Company; 2020 )
Soil of Acceptance (MASA Dance Journey Israel; 2013)
Spun Out (MASA Dance Journey Israel; 2012)