Norma Araiza

NORMA ARAIZA is a Mexican performer, choreographer and instructor from an indigenous background from the Yoeme Nation in Sonora, Mexico.

She has studied different disciplines within the arts in order to find her own unique style that blends dance, theatre, vocals, percussion, and Tai Chi Chuan with cultural and traditional themes especially from her Indigenous background.

Araiza has studied with international theatre directors Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba, Butoh Master Natsu Nakajima, theatre groups Tascabile di Bergamo, Pipo Delbono Company - both from Italy, and Kei Takei from New York, among others.

She has performed extensively as a professional actor and dancer throughout Mexico, California, Ontario, Montreal, Hungary and Colombia. She founded Creando Huecos Company in 1986 and co-founded Tolmec Dance Theatre in 1988 in Mexico City. While in Mexico, she was an assistant director, choreographer, dance theatre performer, and researcher at the National University of Mexico in the Laboratory of Performing Arts.

At present Araiza is artistic director of Tolmec Dance Theatre, an independent Toronto-based group working primarily with culturally specific themes through the medium of dance theatre. She is also a member of various collectives working and promoting dance theatre events, Latin American artists, and cultural events. She is also greatly involved in community arts.

She has completed her Master's Degree in Dance Ethnology at York University where she had taught for several years, and graduated from the Expressive Arts Therapy Program at ISIS-Canada.

Norma is currently working at Hospice Toronto as a facilitator and head of the Expressive Arts Therapy Program. She is a member of CADA, Dance Ontario, and Dancer Transition Resource Centre, and she has also been a member of the Dance Committee at the Toronto Arts Council, and a jury member at the Ontario Arts Council.

Araiza has also collaborated in theatre projects with Canadian Stage/Hour Company, L&L Productions, Inner Stage Theatre, Modern Times Theatre Productions, Leading Tone Arts Productions, among others, as a choreographer, actors’ coach and performer. Araiza has been a recipient of various grants from the Ontario Arts Council, The Ministry of Culture through the Ontario Quebec Cultural Exchange, The Toronto Arts Council, and The Laidlaw Foundation.