The Golden Age of Mexican Modern Dance

To help him shape the dance component of the new Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), Carlos Chávez invited the leading exponents of Mexico’s opposing camps of modern dancers to assist him, along with an array of painters, composers, and writers. As part of INBA’s charge to create a universal culture attractive to international audiences, and at a time the U.S. was promoting modern dance as part of its WWII propaganda efforts in the Americas, Chávez’s team created a modern-dance focused Academy of Mexican Dance. Chávez would soon appoint polymath artist Miguel Covarrubias to lead INBA’s dance department, ushering in a “golden age” for Mexican modern dance. INBA underwrote lavish productions by internationally recognized choreographer José Limón, it also extended similar support to its novice choreographers who mounted productions with scores by its leading composers and scenic designs by its most famous artists.