Principium Omnium
Tabula Rasa Dance Theater was founded in 2017 by Felipe Escalante. To transform both the arts and society, Escalante believes choreography must elicit powerful and sometimes difficult emotional responses.
Escalante says, “Ideally, my work will have repercussions beyond my own medium of dance, and will transcend boundaries of time and place.”
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Felipe Escalante, Artistic Director of Tabula Rasa Dance Theater, began his career at 6, performing the folk dances of his birthplace, Querétaro, México. A protégé of Guillermina Bravo, he graduated from Mexico's National Center of Contemporary Dance.
Escalante choreographed his first piece at 16, and has since developed a repertoire of more than 20 works. Commissioned in 2015 to participate in the International Festival of Young Choreographers in México, Escalante received the Choreography Award in 2017 for his piece “Animula, vagula, blandula” at the Series IV festival in Manhattan.
In 2018, Escalante received a grant from the Ford Foundation to create “Ex umbra in solem,” addressing the global refugee crisis.
Escalante is currently at work on the 2020 program for Tabula Rasa Dance Theater, made possible with further support from the Ford Foundation.
