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. The following year, with further support from the Ford Foundation, Escalante premiered “Inside Our Skins”, calling attention to mass incarceration.

During the 2020 pandemic, he presented “Liquidus,” a virtual piece about the physiological toll of shelter-in-place, and “One of Four,” concerning gender-based violence, in the summer of 2021.

For 2021-2022 Escalante is working on two new dance pieces, about conversion therapy and comercial sex trafficking, made possible by support from the Ford Foundation, and a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Board of Directors

Yvette Kantrow              Director and Treasurer

     Amy Fine Collins           Director and Secretary

           Felipe Escalante            Director and President

Leadership Members

Noriko Naraoka                                     Associated Artist

    Jose Carlos Losada                               Associated Artist 

      Ana Gabriela Escalante                          Adviser

          Sergio Perez Morales                             Art and Costumes Officer

             Felix Huerta                                             Composer

               Gabriela Estrada                                       Company Advisor 

                   Maria del Carmen Morquecho                Associated Artist