Despite its accessibility, there’s a lot of confusion about dance as an art form. That’s where the International Museum of Dance (IMOD) comes in.

Dancer, choreographer, and New Mexico native Hilary Palanza founded IMOD in 2018 with a dream of making dance education and practice available to everyone. “Dance isn’t all about discipline and control,” Palanza says. “Dance is expression, cohesion, ritual, empathy, joy, and refuge.” IMOD offers digital and in-person experiences that extend beyond ticketed performances and include multimedia collaborations, artist residencies, and plenty of opportunities for public engagement. Palanza envisions digital offerings in IMOD’s future, including low-cost online dance education, portals for uploading and managing creative work, and a bespoke social media network where IMOD dance originators will be credited and paid for their moves. IMOD also plans to establish a permanent brick-and-mortar home, but for now museum activities largely appear in pop-up form. For instance, in November IMOD collaborated on an Indigenous People’s Day dance and music event with the Canyon Road–based fashion brand and store 4Kinship.

“Santa Fe is embarking on a new era,” says Palanza. “It can become a town that thinks and acts forward into the future.” That future, according to Palanza, includes “prioritizing BIPOC voices and curations through opportunity, funding, and education, and promoting direly needed support for youth and family activities.” IMOD joined the Art + Sol Santa Fe Winter Arts Festival as an event co-curator thanks to an invite from Performance Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Symphony. Palanza says both groups embraced IMOD’s focus on inclusivity. “We were delighted with [their] interest in how IMOD is unabashedly and unreservedly supporting BIPOC communities and young talent and audiences,” says Palanza. (Performance Santa Fe is no longer co-curating the event; however, its Delfeayo Marsalis concert is part of the festival.) During the February 9–19 festival, IMOD curates a series of performances, workshops, and panel discussions centered around dance at Santa Fe’s Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA). Saturday’s opening night showcase features Native American talents — dancers, musicians, DJs, and multimedia artists from New Mexico and beyond — in IMOD’s second collaboration with 4Kinship.

The showcase includes hoop dancing, which has long been associated with the American Southwest but is practiced by Native American cultures across the United States. Traditional hoop dancer James Jones (Cree) joins the festival all the way from Alberta, Canada; he’s one of the world’s top five hoop dancers. New Mexico’s own ShanDien LaRance (Hopi, Tewa, Navajo, Assiniboine) joins him. She danced with Cirque du Soleil for nearly a decade but calls the Northern New Mexico pueblo of Ohkay Ohwingeh home. Incidentally, many say hoop dancing originated in this part of the state, where it was modified from its original role in ancient healing ceremonies. Performers of this visually and technically stunning dance style travel the continent to compete with and learn from each other, all while maintaining hoop dancing’s traditions and sacred steps.

This modern and ancient blend piques Palanza’s curiosity and inspires IMOD’s programming during the Art + Sol festival and beyond. “Promoting both traditional and contemporary dancers supports our mission of exploring connections between what’s considered old and new dance,” she says.

IMOD’s festival programming at CCA also includes workshops and performances from masters of their crafts, such as classical Bharatanatyam dancer Sneha Chakradhar. Chakradhar, who moved from New Delhi to New Mexico with her husband and infant son during the pandemic to get away from bigcity life, says Bharatanatyam is not just visually arresting but also emotionally potent. “If I’m down, dance gets me up. If I’m too full of energy, dance centers me. Dance does whatever I need it to do in the moment,” says Chakradhar. Bharatanatyam began as a devotional dance in Hindu temples, characterized by lavish aesthetics (think dazzling gold jewelry and resplendent costumes) and physically demanding postures. Many centuries later, performers still wear ornate costumes and jewelry as they contort themselves into dozens of intricate poses; thick black eyeliner and bright red lipstick ensure the audience doesn’t miss — or misconstrue — a single expression.

Each performance, according to Chakradhar, introduces American audiences to the beauty and complexity of Indian culture. “When you watch someone dancing Bharatanatyam,” says Chakradhar, “you’re getting a snapshot of 2,000 years of Indian history.”

Jesús Muñoz, an Albuquerque-based flamenco performer and educator who leads sessions at CCA during Art + Sol, is just as passionate about his chosen style. Muñoz originally planned to study economics at the University of New Mexico but was drawn to the challenge of flamenco after taking just a few classes. For Muñoz, who was a star athlete throughout high school, dance is challenging both physically and creatively. Muñoz runs classes for aspiring dancers at Flamenco Works in downtown Albuquerque, where students learn that flamenco demands nothing less than complete authenticity from its practitioners. “Flamenco is powerful because it’s real,” says Muñoz. “When you see an excellent performer, it’s not because they are great actors. It’s because deep down inside, they are sharing their most vulnerable selves.”

Lumen Theory, a performance art collective based in Albuquerque, leads several days of programming with interactive digital projections, high-tech stage design, and movement-driven audiovisual experiences. Lumen Theory members work in a range of creative disciplines, from AV tech to contemporary dance. They’re united in their explorations of how technology impacts human creativity and vice versa. Ehren Kee Natay (Diné), a sound artist and musician who’s also trained as a silversmith, potter, and painter, exemplifies the broad skill set that’s characteristic of Lumen Theory’s ever-growing and ever-evolving artist roster. Dance artist Gabriel Carrion-Gonzales, who co-founded Lumen Theory in early 2023 and performs during Art + Sol, says, “We’re so excited to share with people who might not be super-familiar with dance.” At CCA Lumen Theory members further explore their commitment to social causes by leading discussions on individual and societal well-being. “We want Art + Sol programming at CCA to examine how self-care can extend beyond yourself and be used as a tool to build up your community,” says Carrion-Gonzales.

In addition to his work with Lumen Theory, Carrion-Gonzales codirects IMOD’s community research and development initiatives along with fellow dancer Angel Guanajuato. Community partnerships, particularly with young people, are crucial to IMOD’s mission to share in the joy of dance, through innovative exhibitions, educational programs, and archival collections. For example, Carrion-Gonzales has spearheaded a mentorship program for high schoolers from New Mexico School for the Arts. “We pair a young dancer with a more experienced one for these mentorships,” he explains. “The most important thing is to listen to what the student dancer wants to express and find out how dance can take them there.” Sharing the language of dance guides IMOD’s future. According to founder Palanza, who is a classically trained ballerina, talking to people about dance isn’t as straightforward as one might think. “A lot of times when I tell people I’m a dancer, conversations come to a halt,” she says. “There isn’t the same understanding for dance as there is for other art forms.”

Most art lovers are able to distinguish a Mondrian from a Monet but would have a harder time telling the difference between the choreography of Merce Cunningham and that of Gene Kelly, who most famously danced across screens in 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain. Thanks to a gift by Kelly’s widow, Patricia, IMOD permanently holds Kelly’s works — one of the key holdings in its archival collection. “Patricia, like me,” says Palanza, “is an innovative and forward-thinking woman. We agreed that Gene’s life can’t exist in a box in storage, pulled out when a curator gets passionate about one aspect of his life, on their terms.” Instead, says Palanza, “Gene, like so many dancers, needs to be understood in the multitudinous expressions of his life and career.” So IMOD is developing digital databases to manage Kelly’s legacy and planning permanent exhibitions centered around his long career both behind the camera and on stage. In her effort to untangle society’s assumptions about dance, an art form often limited to able-bodied individuals or those in a specific age range, Palanza examined how museums are run from the type of exhibitions they show to who curates them. Ultimately, she decided traditional museum structures are outdated and not suited to the art form’s needs.

Although IMOD will hold and display physical objects in its planned brick-and-mortar space, it doesn’t share the usual museum emphasis on collecting physical objects. Similarly, Palanza hopes to reimagine the act of curating and designing exhibitions and performances: dancers, rather than on-staff curators, determine the style and substance of IMOD’s programming. This creates a democratized approach to exhibition structures — a quality on display during the group’s Art + Sol programming. Championing myriad dance styles, IMOD hopes its role as a creative support system will serve a broad mix of artists for years to come.

“IMOD exists to facilitate and connect, and to help bring creative expression to the surface,” she says. Palanza hopes events like those held during Art + Sol will encourage bigger conversations about the freeing power of movement. “Dancers run IMOD,” she says, “and they’re used to making big things happen on very little. I trust that we will continue to wow the communities we serve.”

Based in Santa Fe, Iris McLister is a freelance writer specializing in fine art coverage.