Panamerican Routes

Aluna Theatre’s performance festival showcases women and Latin artists – and some dancing boys

Toronto will soon host scores of vibrant Latin and women performers, and some hot dancing boys, for Aluna Theatre’s international performing arts festival, Panamerican Routes.

Aluna Theatre is a not-for-profit organization focusing on performance work, and this is the second edition of their performing arts festival. “We did it the first time in 2012 and wanted to do it every year,” says artistic director Bea Pizano, “but when we realized how big the festival is, and how much planning it requires, we decided we could only do it every two years.”

The second edition will be nearly three times the size of the first, featuring stage performances, gallery exhibits, installations, concerts, master classes and a four-day conference on performance and human rights. It will include performers from Argentina, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Montreal and several acts from Toronto.

Pizano has had a great deal of difficulty finding queer performers in Latin America to include in the festival. “I haven’t yet found a company that openly defines itself as queer, like Buddies in Bad Times, but when you go as a new presenter, as we are, it’s very difficult,” she says.

Pizano was lucky enough to find a pair of attractive Argentine male dancers, named Diego and Ulises. While they don’t define themselves as queer, they perform a dance that tells the story of their close and complex relationship, the intimacy of which should have great appeal to a queer audience.

Panamerican Routes|Rutas Panamericanas Festival is Thurs, Feb 27–Sun, March 9 at Daniels Spectrum, 585 Dundas St E. alunatheatre.ca

Jeremy Willard is a Toronto-based freelance writer and editor. He's written for Fab Magazine, Daily Xtra and the Torontoist. He generally writes about the arts, local news and queer history (in History Boys, the Daily Xtra column that he shares with Michael Lyons).

Read More About:
Culture, Toronto, Arts, Theatre

Keep Reading

A still image of Anne, played by Amybeth McNulty, in braids and a coat, looking at another child in Anne with an E.

Why the adaptation ‘Anne with an E’ speaks to queers and misfits of all kinds

The modern interpretation of Anne of Green Gables reflected queer and gender-diverse people’s lives back at them 
Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Perez in Emilia Perez. Gascón wears black with colourful embroidery, has long hair, and a brown purse and delicate chain.

Trans cartel musical ‘Emilia Pérez’ takes maximalist aesthetic to the extreme

REVIEW: The film’s existence raises intriguing questions about appropriate subjects for the playful machinations of French auteurs
Dorothy Allison sits behind a microphone. She has long, light-coloured hair and wears glasses and a patterned button-up shirt.

5 things to know about Dorothy Allison

The lesbian feminist writer passed on Nov. 6

‘Solemates’ is a barefoot stroll through the history of our fetish for feet

Queer historian Adam Zmith’s newest book allows us to dip our toes into the past of a common, yet stigmatized, kink