OU Dance Festival Doubles as an International Educational Exchange Program
IIE congratulates The University of Oklahoma (OU) for receiving a 2025 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education in the category of Student Mobility & Exchange. At OU’s Pigmentos International Dance Festival in Puebla, U.S. and Mexican students and instructors exchange ideas, share their cultures, and bond over their passion for dance and the arts. Officers from OU participated in a Q&A to share details about their award-winning initiative.
Why a dance festival?
The Pigmentos International Dance Festival is an annual artistic platform and student exchange opportunity for U.S. and Mexican student-dancers. This exchange provides dance students from both countries with a unique opportunity to share, interact, and learn from each other about dance and life in their respective countries.
While the United States and Mexico are neighbors and each other’s biggest trade partners, the relationship is complicated, and misperceptions abound. Yet this program—with roughly 140 participants and dozens more from the community who attend the performances each year—creates an international space to recognize the beauty of cultural differences and embrace the universal value of art.
Beyond dance classes and performances, there are also roundtable talks and lectures that discuss the field of dance and art in general and that unapologetically aim to grow unity and mutual understanding among the participants. It is a unique space where academia, art, and culture come together on a literal and figurative global stage.
How does this initiative respond to a gap or need in the field?
Dance majors do not often participate in study abroad, and arts-focused study abroad programs are rare. But what really makes this program unique is its accessibility; we’ve intentionally kept costs low to create greater access among local dance students, regardless of their financial situation.
The participation of local dance universities and studios and the number of different venues in which the activities take place also make the Festival stand out. Additionally, the collaborative and international camaraderie make this something truly special. Participants share that there is a sense of “magic” and of “escape” as they take their classes and then witness the regular evening performances throughout the week of the Festival. It is rare to have so many partners from the U.S. and Mexico who trust in this initiative and put in the hours of effort to make it such a success.
Who are the champions of international education on your campus?
Armando Garcia, the Director of OU Programs in Mexico and Co-Coordinator of Latin American Partnerships, is an international educator with a keen interest and experience in the arts. The early stages of the festival started with Garcia’s conversations with Dr. Michael Bearden and other colleagues from the OU School of Dance and dance communities in the greater Puebla area. Today, the program has almost half a dozen collaborators; festival organizers now include The University of Oklahoma, Tec de Monterrey campus Puebla, Centro de Estudios Universitarios SISTI, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, and Universidad de las Artes de Aguascalientes.
Members of the dance and cultural community in Puebla have been instrumental in the organization of the Festival, helping universities to create new partnerships and curating the content of Pigmentos. These members, local dancers and cultural managers, are: Carla Carcamo, Angel Cuevas, and Alejandra Delgadillo.
Additionally, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and the U.S.-Mexico Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (COMEXUS) have supported this initiative as part of their efforts to promote academic mobility between Mexico and the U.S.