Interview with Xochii de la Noche
Xochii de la Noche (she/they) is the multi-dimensional bruja of play and pleasure from Long Beach, CA ready to entice, enchant, and excite. Xochii has been hypnotizing audiences all over California and online since 2021. This wild Sagittarian spirit knows no bounds and is, among many other things, a performer, DJ, artist, and producer. In our interview, Xochii talks about her history with dance and performing as well as the challenges that arose during her creative process.
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Tell us about your history with dance, performance, film, and art practice. How has it influenced your voice as a choreographer?
I’ve always been a performer, an artist and a lover of dance, but I never considered myself a dancer until a few years ago when the pandemic first started. Most of the dancers I saw growing up were thin and because I’ve never been thin and was teased growing up for not being thin, I wasn’t confident in myself and never was able to see myself as a dancer. Dance and movement has been a major healing tool in reclaiming my confidence. I also think of it as a huge opportunity to also give other people who don’t see themselves in other “traditional” dancers a chance to see themselves on stage in a unique, playful way that celebrates all of who they are.
What are some challenges, revelations, or unexpected aspects that you’ve had to overcome when choreographing this piece?
This was the first piece I ever choreographed and performed! I came up with this piece and performed it almost exactly a year ago. I had no idea what I was doing or how to choreograph a piece, but I knew I was super excited and I had a vision. The biggest challenge was using my starting choreography as only a loose guideline and surrendering myself to experimentation to figure out what felt natural for my body and building my piece from there. Another related challenge was letting go of perfection and being okay with going off the choreography. I never wanted to feel stressed about making sure I hit every single move I wrote down. I also wanted to leave room for organic playfulness and pleasure to make the act feel unique each time it’s performed. It’s really cool to go back now after having been performing and learning over the year and seeing what new movement tools I can add in and play with. I can really tangibly see how much I’ve grown.
Other than choreography/dance, what other mediums (if any) are you utilizing to showcase the message or purpose behind your piece?
Besides dance, particularly burlesque dancing, I’m also utilizing silk fans. Silk fans and other forms of flow arts brought me back to my love of dance and movement at the beginning of the pandemic. When I started developing an interest in performing burlesque, I found that the feather fans were a lot more common than the silk fans. That felt like it left so much room for me to play and experiment with the silk fans. I also thought the silk flowed so gorgeously and would be such a perfect element of tease!
What would you like the audience to know about your work in this festival?
I would love the audience to know that coming back to this piece is a huge milestone for me! Since performing this piece as my very first public act, I’ve grown so much. This has already been such a wildly fulfilling journey. When dance and movement had entered my life the way it did, I was reevaluating a lot of things in my life, including where I was putting my time and energy into. Looking back, I feel so grateful that I made an active choice to put so much time into myself and my art. Since then, I’ve never felt more inspired, fulfilled, and confident. I’m honored to perform this reworked piece for Queer Mvmnt Fest as a symbol of growth and self-love!
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Xochii de la Noche will be performing in the Ohio Burlesque Festival on August 15th, 2022. You can keep up with her future performances and workshops on her website, xochii.com. You can also support her art through her Patreon (patreon.com/xochii).
Xochii will be performing and teaching a workshop at Queer Mvmnt Fest, happening June 24-27. You can sign up for all the activities; we have film screenings, performances, panel discussions, and workshops throughout the 4 day festival. We also have more blog posts coming soon, so stay tuned for updates on Instagram!