The siren sits opposite to virgin, as the wicked, hypersexual, and racially fetishized representation of Latina-ness. This archetype performs sensuality and empowerment that blankets insecurity and deep longing.
In media representation, Latinas hold power in their physical looks and sexuality. Growing up, I was inspired by my outspoken and glamourous tías and, as a young woman, became fascinated with my ability to perform a version of femininity that turned heads and garnered desire.
Contrary to siren’s bombastic performance, this archetype is highly introspective. “La Sirena” gains power from being desired and admired, but is ultimately alone. While she views herself as superior to her admirers, she also fears closeness and emotionality. With siren, I am interested in expanding the spicy Latina trope into a nuanced being who is capable of sexual empowerment, introspection and love. – Marggie Ogas
In my embodiment of the Lover archetype, I look deeply into the masculine Lover in His fullness. The archetype of emotion, sensuality, feeling, and idealism. There’s an aliveness, an opening up of all the senses, feeling so alive and having a want for all of life’s pleasures. The Lover is hungry for passion and purpose. An addiction to knowing what feels good, and constantly striving for that. Beauty, love, connections, empathy, and a limitless pursuit of passion. The Lover’s energy is boundless, and any rules or limitations are only there to be broken. – Marisol Herling
Who doesn’t love the Comic? The witty remarks, the sassy cadence of her voice, the way her laughter lights up the room. She sparkles! Yes, literally she sparkles– she wears glitter as an accessory. When most people operate at a 5 out of 10, Comic runs at a 17 out of 10. It’s not being extra, it’s just bathing in that juicy life force that rushes through her sexy, hot bod (if I do say so myself). I embody Comic with eagerness, for she is my permission to be the silly child, the stingy bite, the excess, that I swallow down in my day to day. We all need a Comic in our lives to double– sometimes even triple-–dog dare us to take that risk, flirt with that hottie over there, take up the white space in the room and fill it with neon and sparkles. – Julia Gay
Alchemist is science and spirit, and perhaps magic. They are precise directions, geography, elements, and chemistry. They build care-full constellations of sacred tools, tools with lineage, DNA, epigenetic matter in their petals, stems, creases, fibers, kernels, and molecules. Alchemist is a director, a facilitator, a cartographer, a historian, culture worker, and perhaps healer. They are a world builder, a weaver of people and information together, they are a change maker. – Taja Will
Video excerpt from 2019 Candy Box Dance Festival presented by ARENA Dances, at the Southern Theater.
In my take on Shadow, I look through the lens of the Companion. A co-dependency that runs so deep, it becomes an obsessive need of another person. They lose themself in everything: work, partnerships, friendships and become fixated. I cannot exist without another, I need to be needed. Quick to make assumptions about the needs and wants of the other person, in an attempt to stay valuable to that person. Shadow becomes so blind to their true self, that they fail to see that their need for control causes them to give up their own autonomy. A shadow cannot exist without a great light, just as The Shadow cannot exist without it’s light counterpart. – Marisol Herling
The Farmer is industrious, diligent and hardworking. They do not dwell on the frivolity of emotion, rather they are fueled by the pragmatic, the logical, the most efficient process for the most effective outcome. Farmer bubbles to my surface throughout the day; when I do my daily chores and find myself in a methodically trance of the mundane, when I step into Ikea and appreciate the seductive nature of the order of things, when I walk barefoot after a fresh rain and feel the dirt ooze through my toes. The Farmer belongs to another time and another land. Perhaps they are my mother or my mother’s mother. Perhaps they sowed the seeds that now grow lush in my heart. – Julia Gay
This archetype is deeply connected to the Virgen of Guadalupe, who is not only a symbol of identity for Mexicans and Chicanos, but an idealized figure of Mexican femininity. La Virgen is a pure, spiritually divine figure who is simultaneously youthful and motherly. As a child who attended Catholic school, Guadalupe was my main idol of Mexican womanhood, outside of my family. I drew pictures of her, carried cards with her image, and even had a Guadalupe shirt.
Like many young Latinas, I was encouraged to be highly feminine without being “fast” or provocative. In this work, I thought about this obsession with purity and associating pureness with spiritual morality and “proper” womanhood. I am interested in reclaiming this figure as a source of cultural heritage and youthful femininity that allows for more balance and peace, as opposed to rejection, towards the siren archetype. –Marggie Ogas
