María Gloria Contreras Roeniger, better known as Gloria Contreras (November 15, 1934 – November 25, 2015) was a Mexican dancer and

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

Biography

Contreras was born in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. She studied dancing under Nelsy Dambré in Mexico from 1946 to 1954, and, after joining the

Royal Winnipeg Ballet The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America. History It was founded in 1939 as the "Winnipeg Ballet Club" by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally (who also fou ...

, visited the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional voc ...

in New York from 1956 to 1964, where she was taught by Pierre Vladimirov,

Felia Doubrovska Felia Doubrovska (; born as ''Felizata Dlouzhnevska'' in St Petersburg, February 13, 1896 – d. Manhattan, September 18, 1981) was a Russian dancer and teacher. Doubrovska graduated at the Imperial Ballet School in 1913, was member of the Ma ...

, Anatole Oboukhoff,

Muriel Stuart Muriel Stuart (1885, Norbury, South London – 18 December 1967), born Muriel Stuart Irwin, was a poet, the daughter of a Scottish barrister. She was particularly concerned with the topic of sexual politics, though she first wrote poems about W ...

and

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

. From 1958 to 1965 she was also taught by Carola Trier. Contreras taught choreography at the

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM) and was director of its choreography workshop, which she founded in 1970.
Following Balanchine, she had a neo-classical choreographic style and utilized the music of Mexican composers in her work. Contreras had been a member of the

International Dance Council International Dance Council (CID, in French: Conseil international de la danse ） is the umbrella organization for all forms of dance in the world. It was founded in 1973 at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris "under the auspices of UNESCO as a ...

since 2003 and was a member of the

Academia de Artes The Academia de Artes (AA) is a Mexican institution dedicated to the promotion and development of the arts. Established between 1967 and 1968 by a presidential decree dated December 12, 1966, its mission is to recognize contributions to Mexican c ...

.

She was awarded many times, including with Mexico's Premio Nacional de las Artes in 2005.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Contreras Roeniger, Maria Del Carmen Gloria 1934 births 2015 deaths Mexican female dancers Mexican ballerinas Mexican choreographers Mexican women choreographers Ballet choreographers Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Members of the Academia de Artes