María Gloria Contreras Roeniger, better known as Gloria Contreras (November 15, 1934 – November 25, 2015) was a Mexican dancer and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Biography

Contreras was born in Mexico City. She studied dancing under Nelsy Dambré in Mexico from 1946 to 1954, and, after joining the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, visited the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...

in New York from 1956 to 1964, where she was taught by Pierre Vladimirov,

Felia Doubrovska Felia Doubrovska (russian: link=no, Фелия Дубровская (real name Фелицата Леонтьевна Длужневская); born as ''Felizata Dlouzhnevska'' in St Petersburg, February 13, 1896 – d. Manhattan, September 18, ...

, Anatole Oboukhoff,

Muriel Stuart Muriel Stuart (1885, Norbury, South London – 18 December 1967), born Muriel Stuart Irwin, was a poet, the daughter of a Scottish barrister. She was particularly concerned with the topic of sexual politics, though she first wrote poems about W ...

and

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

. From 1958 to 1965 she was also taught by

Carola Trier Carola Strauss Trier (1913–2000) was a German dancer, acrobat, contortionist, and later a teacher, lecturer, and practitioner. Biography Trier was the second daughter of German chemist and philosopher Eduard Strauss and Beatrice Rosenberg, an A ...

. Contreras taught choreography at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and was director of its choreography workshop, which she founded in 1970.
Following Balanchine, she had a neo-classical choreographic style and utilized the music of Mexican composers in her work. Contreras had been a member of the International Dance Council since 2003 and was a member of the

Academia de Artes The Academia de Artes (AA) is the Mexican Academy of Arts founded 1967/1968 by CONACULTA for the promotion of Mexican art. Seat of the institution is the Museo Nacional de San Carlos in Mexico City. The Slogan of the Acadademy is ''elevación por el ...

.

She was multiply awarded, including Mexico's Premio Nacional de las Artes.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Contreras Roeniger, Maria Del Carmen Gloria 1934 births 2015 deaths Mexican female dancers Mexican ballerinas Mexican choreographers Ballet choreographers National Autonomous University of Mexico faculty Musicians from Mexico City