Embodying the Sacred: An Interview with Eugenia Vargas, Visionary of Dance and Ritual
Photo credit: Pepe Castillo Borja
Eugenia Vargas, a prolific Mexican dancer, choreographer, and researcher, has spent decades cultivating spaces where dance transcends movement to become a transformative experience. As the founder of Laboratorio Escénico Danza Teatro Ritual and Cuerpos en Revuelta - Butoh International Festival, Vargas weaves her deep ancestral roots into her art. In this interview, she shares insights into her daily life, the rewards and challenges of her career, and the profound impact of her cultural heritage on her life's work.
What's a typical day in your life look like?:
I start my day training, then I go to teach to the Contemporary Dance School. In the afternoon, I do management work or, depending on my commitments, I rehearse for my company's performances or rehearse my work as a soloist.
What is the most rewarding part of your work?:
Teaching has always been an essential part of my life, not only professionally but fundamentally on an artistic level, since my passion is to promote experiences that trigger transformative experiences in those who delve into themselves through movement and dance. I have been working for years at a Professional Contemporary Dance School in Mexico teaching the Experimental Workshop and Stage Practices, as well as Dance and Dramaturgy. So the most rewarding part of my job is when I observe young dancers enthusiastically delving into the search for their own language within dance beyond technical virtuosity and the exhibition of their talent. The same occurs when I give butoh workshops, which are open to anyone interested, and I witness the transformation that butoh dance exert not only on the bodies but essentially on the lives of the participants.
How would you say your upbringing and cultural background contributed to your career aspirations?:
My ancestral roots allow me to remember that dance is sacred, that what matters is not who dances but what dances through the dancer's body, which is only a channel. Dance, for me, is a way to dissolve into the cosmos and elevate prayer, full of gratitude for the mystery of existence. My artistic and professional aspirations are centered on the verb "to share," and butoh dance has allowed me to share in different parts of the world, for which I feel extremely grateful.
What would you say has been your biggest obstacle in launching a successful career? How have you overcome it?:
The biggest obstacle is the system in which we live, where art is not considered necessary. Organizing Butoh dance events is a real job against the current, but like a salmon, I put all my energy into making dreams come true. This is very moving because unfortunately it is rare when government institutions give support to generate projects, so every time a project becomes a reality, it is because there has been the sum of many people who add their will and desire to make it a reality. Let's say that it is love, sensitivity and the desire to meet to celebrate life through dance, which makes it possible for so many projects that I am constantly generating and promoting to become reality, which involve artists from different parts of the world. So the way to overcome obstacles is to build a community, to create networks, to create complicity between artists. And here I highlight the work of women managers who work tirelessly to make dreams come true, as in the case of Vangeline in New York and Natalia Cuéllar in Chile.
What is the phrase, sentence, or conversation that stopped you in your tracks and changed your outlook in life?:
It was not a phrase, but rather an encounter with the eloquence and wonder of silence. It happened in my childhood, next to my father, when together we gazed in silence and immersed in boundless amazement at the starry sky in the countryside. That experience left its mark on me. But I also remember when I was helping my father - who was an agricultural engineer - to plant flowers in the garden. And a worm came out. My reaction was one of fear and disgust, but my father took it tenderly in his hand and told me: she is also a daughter of the earth and we must take care of her and respect her. So I learned to love the immeasurable and the tiny equally.
What are you committed to doing no matter what happens?:
To be faithful to my dreams
What is something you’re willing to start all over again?:
I believe that dance, like love for life, begins every day as if it were the first time. In that sense, although sometimes it is difficult and uphill, every day I continue my path in dance and, with it, my love for life.
When are you the happiest?:
When I can realease my gaze to the horizon, like when I am facing the sea or on a mountain, just being part of life, without any other task than being-there. But also when, after a long day, or a long trip, I can be at home, with my cat, resting in silence.
Hustle culture and burnout is so prominent in our community. How do you prioritize self care?:
I think I need to learn to rest. I've been thinking lately that I'm a workaholic, but on the other hand, it's true that if I didn't do everything I do, I simply wouldn't be celebrating, for example, 20 years of work with my company, organizing festivals, meetings, seminars, performances, or anything. But even though it's exhausting, it really makes me happy to do it because I think that life should be celebrated as long as it exists.
Same goes for imposter syndrome. How do you combat those feelings (if any)?:
I struggle with it all the time, BUT my way of fighting it is by remembering that it is not about me because I am thanks to all my ancestors who have preceded me and, because of them, I must open my heart with gratitude to the diverse experiences that I have to live. Therefore, when I dance or when I share a workshop, I do it with humility, but with all the dignity that the lineage of my ancestors deserves, which goes back to the Toltecs, an indigenous group that honored life through art in Mesoamerican lands.
How do you stay connected to your culture, heritage, and community?:
Whenever I can, I participate in sacred ceremonies, such as the temazcal, or the moon dance, for example. These practices belong to the "Camino Rojo", with which I resonate intimately and is practiced by indigenous peoples from Canada to Patagonia.
What accomplishment are you most proud of, both in your personal and professional life?:
Having stayed faithful to my dreams no matter how difficult it was.
Drink 🫖
What is Eugenia’s go-to drink?
I opt for whole organic bean coffee, machine-made, American style.
Listening To 🎧
What is Eugenia listening to at the moment?
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tomoko Sauvage, Shipibo Shamans - Herlinda Agustín Fernández, Ryoji Ikeda, Hiroko Komiya, Coral Rojo.
Your Truth 🗣️
What is a Eugenia’s truth?
For me, dance is a way of life, it is a prayer that is shared to give thanks for life, death and its mystery. It is a way of caressing the earth with loving step. It is a way of dissolving into the cosmos and becoming a seed in the heart of the earth. And specifically, butoh allows us to dance holding the hand of our ancestors for celebrate life. Dancing, for me, is a way of learning to die with an open heart, of knowing that we are finite and of being grateful for the preciousness of time. Perhaps my childhood is the golden treasure that has allowed me to be who I am, how lucky I was to have had the father and mother who filled me with love and whom I lost when I was very young. My father when I was 15, my mother when I was 26. Perhaps being an orphan taught me to hold on to beauty, to recognize that life and death are sacred.
Your Plug 🔌
What is Eugenia plugging today?
In 2024 I am celebrating 20 years of work with my company Laboratorio Escénico Danza Teatro Ritual and it has been a year of a lot of dance since the beginning of January and will end in December, with an intensive workshop at Zipolite Camp, in Oaxaca, Mexico. You can check out the information here. But before that, in November, during the celebration of the dead, we will premiere a choreographic piece to celebrate the 20 years of the company. This work features 5 dancers who have been part of the company during different periods and the original music is by Hiroko Komiya, a wonderful sound artist, specialized in butoh. So it has been a glorious year and I am very grateful. For 2025 I have many projects to carry out that include the meeting of women in butoh, as well as artistic residencies for creation, seminars, intensive workshops and also my participation in different international festivals. So as long as life continues, and even in death, may the dance endure!
More about Eugenia Vargas
Eugenia Vargas is a Mexican dancer, choreographer, teacher, manager and researcher. Her education integrates choreography, dance research and literary creation. Her artistic interest is based on the question about the body, butoh and the composition of the poetic image on the scene. In her workshops, Vargas focuses on the investigation of the impulse as a spark of sensation in order to delve into the training of nervous sensitivity and transformatiion body, based on energy and its multiple qualities-
She is the founder and director of Laboratorio Escénico Danza Teatro Ritual (LEDTR), a space that has served not only as an incubator for dance and interdisciplinary projects, but also as an artistic residence and a formative space for butoh dance, from which several generations of artists have emerged or have been influenced.
She is co-founder and director of Cuerpos en Revuelta - Butoh International Festival -, of the Seminar “Thinking from the body with and against butoh”, of Archivo Butoh México among several other initiatives focused on the practice and study of butoh. She is a relevant figure in the promotion of butoh in Mexico.
Vargas has trained with some of the most recognized butoh dance teachers in Mexico, Japan and Germany, performing choreographic productions of Natsu Nakajima, Tadashi Endo and Yukio Waguri. Also she has directed choreographic projects at a national and international level and has participated in festivals and stages in several countries, being recognized for her work in specialized books on butoh. She has recently been selected as one of the resident artists at B.I.G (Butoh International Gathering) which was held in Germany past August.
And she has been selected to be part of the National System of Art Creators, one of the most important distinctions in Mexico.