*NDP Touring Subsidies Available (through 2029)

Premiere: March 2026, Live Arts Miami

Traveling cast & crew: 10-12 (7-9 performers, 1 director, 2 crew)

Tropical Depression investigates the force of nostalgia within the exile community and its ramifications in the personal, social, and political realm. This subversive cabaret/dance theater performance by Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre explores the complexities of identity, memory, and preservation. Conjuring Deși Arnaz, David Lynch, and Pina Baush, this work is joyful, surrealist celebration of immigrant life. Set against the current backdrop of political persecution and demonization of immigrants, Tropical Depression celebrates the glamor and beauty of the Caribbean, allowing for a provocative commentary on the ways in which cultural narratives shape collective identities over time.

Tropical Depression is a 2025 National Dance Project Production & Touring Grant recipient, in partnership with Live Arts Miami, Dance Place, and American Dance Festival.

Premiere: 2022

Touring Cast: 9 (6 performers, 1 director, 2 crew) + 10-15 local community movement choir when possible

Devotion is the third and final work in a trilogy of dances that use religious iconography as a way to explore themes of love. It is specifically interested in the unique ways that women worship and specifically how we navigate intimacy in relationship to technology. Reimagining technology as an equalizing force that is not yet colonized, and that often times stands in opposition to nature, Devotion continues the research of the other works within the trilogy, Carne Viva and Make Believe, by deconstructing iconography of the Catholic Church as a way to bridge the gap between these symbols and their contemporary counterparts. This work aims to dissect our contemporary attitudes about faith and cast a more reverent eye on the rituals that we already engage in.

Devotion was commissioned by the American Dance Festival in 2022, with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works. This program is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Premiere: 2017

Touring Cast: 6 (4 performers, 2 crew)

A quartet originally developed to be a part of Make Believe, Carne Viva is an exploration into the violence of transcendence. Loosely translated to mean “open wound” Carne Viva builds upon the themes of religion and romance for a work that is much sparser and physical than Herrera’s previous work. Brutal and elegant, Carne Viva is a visceral journey into the dichotomy of power within relationships.

Carne Viva was commissioned by The American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Dance. Additional support provided by Hilton Durham near Duke University. The development of this work was made possible through the Alan M. Kriegsman Creative Residency at Dance Place and was created at The Yard, an artist residency and performance center dedicated to contemporary dance, theater and related arts, as part of the 2017 Off-Shore Creation Residency.