“Olin Yoliztli” is a not-for-profit group based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa; which through dance, music, and tradition, shares cultural expressions rooted in Mexico, with the aim of building an autonomous, community-based group that contributes meaningfully to the wider community.
Founded in June 2020, the group was created not only to share the diverse dances of Mexico, but also to invite people to explore these traditions in depth: their origins, the meanings they hold in their original contexts, the languages and worldviews of the peoples to whom they belong, and the subtle values they carry.
What does “Olin Yoliztli” means?
Olin Yoliztli can be understood as “blood moving in the heart,” “life like a beating heart,” or simply “life and movement.” These words come from the Náhuatl language, an Indigenous language of Mesoamerica that continues to be spoken in Mexico today.
Olin is movement: the pulse of life, the rhythm of transformation, the motion that carries all things through cycles of becoming and renewal. It is the force that reminds us that nothing remains still; everything changes, grows, and returns. Within Olin lives the understanding that creation and transformation are part of the same continuous dance.
Yoliztli is life. In the Náhuatl worldview, life and death are not opposites separated by a straight line of time, but companions within an eternal cycle. One gives meaning to the other, as the heartbeat is made of both contraction and release. Existence (nemiliztli) and death (miquiztli) are the systole and diastole of life’s beating heart: yoliztli.
Together, Olin Yoliztli speaks of life in motion: a living heartbeat that connects us to the cycles of nature, to community, to memory, and to the continual renewal of all things.
Dance Classes
olin.yoliztli11@gmail.com
Previous Performances
Hermano(a), danza y danza sin descansar,
no permitas que exista fatiga ni dolor en tus piernas,
en tu corazón o en tu pensamiento;
hoy más que nunca necesitamos de tu armonía.
Danza y danza sin descansar,
haz que tu cuerpo y tu pluma giren
girando tu energía
tocando los cuatro puntos del infinito
y las entrañas de nuestra madre tierra.
Hermano(a), danza y danza sin descansar,
enséñale a tu pueblo
y principalmente a tus niños
cómo se ama a la naturaleza,
al universo
y al recuerdo del origen de la creación.
Hermano(a), danza y danza sin descansar...
Everardo Lara González
Events
Workshops
La palabra es eterna
Natalia Toledo
Desde los huipiles, códices geométricos
que revelan la flora y la fauna de nuestras tierras.
Desde el cacao que reverbera
en las jicaras en los días de fiesta
Desde la flauta, aliento que guarda
el pentagrama de la memoria,
Desde los cerros y las lagunas
sagradas en el alba.
Desde la comida ritual, festiva y cotidiana
que ofrendamos a nuestros muertos,
Desde nuestros idiomas,
hemos resistido.
(Poetisa bilingüe, escritora en zapoteco y español)
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Olin Yoliztli is a non-profit organization that has sustained itself thanks to the work and dedication of its members. The organization does not have the purpose of making a profit for a proprietor, member, or shareholder. The collected money from the attendants to dance classes or workshops and donations from the events we organize contribute to covering the costs involved in carrying out this work.
¡Tlazohcamati! (In Nahuatl, it refers to the love that is felt in response to a specific action)
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
We are what we remember
Erik Pevernagie
Olin Yoliztli 