Claudia Lavista (Mexico) is a dancer, choreographer and teacher.   She started her studies of music and theater at the age of eight.  She subsequently studied dance at the National System for Professional Teaching of Dance in Mexico City.  In 1987 she joined the dance company U.X. Onodanza and was later asked to join Danzahoy Dance Company from Venezuela, where she danced for five years and began her choreographic work. In 1992 she founded Delfos Contemporary Dance along with Victor Manuel Ruiz, winning the National Dance Award in 1992. Since the beginning of her career, she has received numerous awards for her artistic works including the National Dance Award in 1992, Best Female Dancer at the International Dance Festival of San Luis Potosi in 2005, and Best Female Dancer at the National Dance Award in 1998 and the 2002 among others. She has also been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts with the following fellowships: VII Special Production Projects (1996), Young Creator (2002-03), Interpreter (1994) and Experience Interpreter (2005-06). Through the State Arts and Culture Found from Sinaloa she won fellowships: “Recognize Artist” in 2001 and Scenic Production Award in 2006. In 2001 the specialized critics selected her as “One of the 10 Best Female Dancers of the XX Century” and in 2007 the press named her as the Best Interpreter and Best Choreographic Work of the International Dance Festival “A Desert for Dance” in Sonora. In 2007 she was invited as International Visiting Artist at the 25th Bates Dance Festival, which is supported in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA). She came back in 2010 invited as professor, choreographer and performer trough the Program Creative Exchange Award given by the Performing Americas of National Performance Network (NPN) and Difusion Cultural de UNAM. Her work “Stone Garden”, created for the North American dancer Andree Scott, received the Award of the Austin Critics Table as “Outstanding Dance Concert” in 2008. In 2008, The National Endowment for the Arts recognized her artistic development by entering her in the Creators of Art National System.   Claudia has performed in more than 80 choreographies and has created more than 30 choreographic works. She has collaborated with theater and opera directors, photographers, video artists and numerous other artist professionals. Her choreography has been praised by critics in more than a dozen countries and has been presented by seven dance companies, among them the prestigious Mexican National Dance Company and Winnipeg Contemporary Dance. In 2011 she received a Mellon Fellow by the University of Chicago. Claudia is a dancer, co-artistic director and choreographer of Delfos Contemporary Dance and a co-director and teacher of the Mazatlan Professional School of Contemporary Dance (EPDM).  She has taught classes and workshops in México and abroad.  In October 2008 the International Dance Festival “Lila Lopez” in San Luis Potosi granted the EPDM the Raul Flores Canelo Award for its pedagogical and artistic contribution to the national dance media.