ABOUT US

Juan Castaño co-founded Calpulli Mexican Dance Company with the vision of celebrating and serving the Mexican and Mexican-American community across the USA.

Mr. Castaño, a native of El Paso, Texas, holds an MBA in General Management from the Metropolitan College of New York. He also holds a BA in Chemistry and studied Latin American Studies while at Grinnell College in Iowa. There he also began his studies of folk dance with student instructor Alicia Gonzalez. He continued his training in NYC with several choreographers most notably Noemy Hernandez, Daniel Jaquez, and Alberto Lopez. With over 20 years of dance experience in Mexican folk dance, Mr. Castaño is  a Master Teacher with the Young Arts Foundation. In recent years, he is a guest choreographer for Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, setting pieces for several productions and co-writing “Puebla: The Story of Cinco de Mayo” and “Navidad: A Mexican-American Christmas,” with the latter pulling from his upbringing on the US-Mexico border.

He studied Arts Administration as continuing education at New York University and is a certified Non-Profit Financial Professional via the Fiscal Management Associates. Mr. Castaño is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) via the Project Management Institute.

Since 2003, Mr. Castaño works as a managing director, teaching artist, grant writing, and producer in the arts and beyond. Specifically, he is currently an Associate Director at Pfizer supporting research and development projects.

Mr. Castaño is inspired by the quality of the artistic and cultural programming by Calpulli, with whom he is still a dancer. Accessibility of high quality community programs, serving hundreds of students and families, is also a driving force for his dedication to the performing arts.

Grisel Pren Monje is an accomplished, ambitious director, choreographer and teaching artist, adept at leading a team of dancers, choreographing innovative performances, and spearheading the artistic vision of programming. She was born and raised in Cancun, Mexico and always had a strong, passionate love for dance. Beginning her dance training at a young age in local dance studios, she became a professional dancer and entertainer in many of the Resorts in the Riviera Maya.

In 2007, at the age of 24, Grisel moved to the United States to study ballet, jazz, and musical theater in New York City under the International student visa program for dance. She worked hard and maximized all the wonderful opportunities in dance that her new life in the states had to offer and has continued her dance training in renowned schools such as Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, The Alvin Ailey school, among others. 

Since then she has performed and choreographed for several dance companies throughout her dance career and made her Off Broadway debut in 2012 with “Zapata! The Musical” at the New York Musical Festival with a principal role. 

In 2008, she joined the Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, moving up the ranks from dancer/performer to teaching artist, choreographer, associate artistic director to her current role as artistic director. At Calpulli, she’s gained solid experience as a dynamic leader and creative innovator. She’s toured with the company, both nationally and internationally. As a teaching artist, Grisel works toward building an appreciation for dance and the arts by providing culturally enriched dance training and classes for children, adolescents, and adults. 

She currently works as a Dance Teaching Artist for Society of the Educational Arts, Center for Modern Dance Education, Grunin Performing Arts Academy,  New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Calpulli Community. Grisel holds a Mexican Folk Dance teacher certification from El Ballet Folklorico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez, a Mexican Folk Dance and Raza Technique training Diploma from El Ballet Folklórico de la Universidad de Colima de el maestro Rafael Zamarripa and has attended and completed Traditional Mexican Dance workshops and a Stage Production training program in La Escuela Nacional de Danza Folklórica in Mexico City.

Alberto Lopez Herrera is a Choreographer, Wardrobe Designer & Maker, and Teaching Artist with over 30 years of experience in Mexican folk dance and story-telling. He aims to expand Calpulli Mexican Dance Company’s folk repertoire and develop productions with cross-cultural narratives. Mr. Lopez also seeks to share his knowledge of Mexican traditions in dance with younger generations via Calpulli Community.

Originally from San Antonio Chiltepec in Puebla, Mr. Lopez began his studies of Mexican folkloric dance at the age of 12 at the Centro Escolar Benito Juarez de Acatlán de Osorio. At the same time, he began to develop skills in garment making, a craft that would later compliment his dedication to dance. He completed the National Dance Institute’s intensive Teaching Artist training in New York. In the USA, Mr. Lopez was a dancer and choreographer with Grupo Folklórico de Greatneck, Don Juan Dancers, and the Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Nueva York, working with distinguished choreographers Francisco Nevarez, Daniel Jaquez, and Noemy Hernandez.

Under his Artistic Direction, Calpulli Mexican Dance Company has performed at noted venues including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Inside/Out Series), Wortham Center (Houston, TX), Humboldt State University, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Penn State Erie, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors, where Dance Critic Brian Seibert hailed Calpulli a “terrific company” after its performance. His choreographic works have been featured in noted venues and praised by critics at the NY Examiner, Queens Courier, and Houston Chronicle. A few months later, Mr. Lopez was named “Star of Queens” by the Queens Courier for his artistic accomplishments and commitment to community arts programming. He was also recognized by Time Magazine in the series “American Voices.” He provided artistic direction, choreography, wardrobe design, and cultural expertise for the productions “Dia de los Muertos” and “Boda Mexicana.” Most recently, Mr. Lopez was Dramaturg and Folk Choreographer for the Off-Broadway production “The Crossing” produced by the Barrington Stage under the Director of Joshua Bergasse. Lopez plans to continue Calpulli’s body of work in story-telling with future productions.

Mr. Lopez continues to create traditional garments used in Mexican folkloric dance. With great attention to detail, he designs wardrobe from across Mexico. His pivotal role in costuming can be seen throughout the company’s repertoire.

Mr. Lopez was instrumental in the founding of Calpulli Community, which offers donation-based dance and music classes across the northeastern United States. In addition to technical training in folk dance and more, Mr. Lopez inspires his students and dancers by focusing on the sheer joy of dance and using that joy to create magic on stage to inspire audiences.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and educator, George Saenz is originally from Laredo, Texas. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA where he studied music performance and Jazz Composition and currently resides in New York City. 

He serves as musical director and educator for NYC’s Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, and works as a freelance musician with various acclaimed musical projects in and around NYC, including as Musical Director, trombonist-accordionist and arranger with multi Grammy Award-winning artist Lila Downs. 

His travels have led him to performances and productions around the world throughout Europe, Latin America, as well as extensive tours of the United States and Canada.

Yahir Montes is a Mexican guitarist, vocalist, bassist, composer, songwriter, and arranger originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco. At the age of 14 he enrolled at the Instituto Universitario de Bellas Artes in Colima, Mexico where he completed a Bachelor of Music with honorable mention. He also has a Masters in Composition and Arrangement from Universidad Tito Puente in Puebla, Mexico. Yahir has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Joe's Pub, Times Square, and Mass MOCA for Frida, The Musical and Broadway in Spanglish and has written, arranged and produced for film, musical theater projects and diverse artists in New York City. Yahir is part of Calpulli Mexican Dance Company which brings Mexican folklore to the stage.

Gabriela Garcia is an artist dividing her time between the theater, dance, commercial and education industries. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from Saint Mary's College of California, and is Co-Founder and Director of R.Evolución Latina (RL), a nonprofit organization making a difference through the arts. Some of her theater credits are Half Time the musical directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, CHICAGO The Musical Mexico City and Vienna (Velma Kelly), CHICAGO Broadway (cast member and dance captain), CHICAGO Düsseldorf (Dance Associate), and Sweeney Todd at the Barrow Street Theater (Movement Associate). As a choreographer, she served as Associate Choreographer for Public Works' musical production of Twelfth Night. She has created works for the Joffrey Ballet School's NYC Jazz and Contemporary summer intensive performances, BC/EFA benefits, R.Evolución Latina's Choreographer Festival and for Preludio Cultural Association in Peru, where she choreographed a production of Sweet Charity and CHICAGO. Her ballet and theater dance classes have reached schools in Sweden, Peru, Mexico, China, Germany and other countries. In New York she has taught at institutions such as Ellison Ballet, PACE University, Ithaca College, and was co-coordinator for the Joffrey Ballet School’s Joffrey Ensemble. Professional dance companies include Tanzforum Koeln (Germany) and Pacific Northwest Ballet. TV credits include: Succession, Jessica Jones. Film credits: In The Heights, Whatever Lola Wants (Tribeca film festival) and Enchanted. As a voiceover actor, her voice can be heard in numerous TV commercials and radio spots for the US national Hispanic market as well as Spanish language audio books. 

Carolina Ortiz is a New York-based lighting designer for theater, opera, and dance and has served as Calpulli’s lighting designer since 2018. Ortiz immigrated to the US from Mexico, which has infused her artistic journey with the desire to disrupt artificial constructs of identity that are added by outsiders. She uses light to transport an audience to “stand at the threshold” where a new understanding of our collective experience is revealed. Living at the intersection of two cultures is a constant source of resilience, adaptability, and change and she is inspired to share through engaging, inclusive theater showcasing the chorus of human voices on stage. Ortiz has worked as a lighting supervisor for the Santa Fe Opera. Recent credits include I and You by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Gia Forakis at Bristol Riverside Theatre and Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris, directed by Robert O’Hara at Mark Taper Forum. Ortiz has a BA in Theater from UCLA and an MFA in Design from Yale School of Drama.