Sally Hilton Perez
Sally Hilton Perez is our next Talent Development artist. She began her artistic journey with Sheba Arts in 2018 as a performer and since has received a few commissions and taken part in creative workshops and events. Last year she received a Sheba Festival commission to research and develop a new piece inspired by Guatemalan folktales and her life story. We will support Sally to produce La Nagualita in 2023-24.
Born in Guatemala, I was raised in the village of San Marcos to a close-knit Indigenous Mayan family, on the slopes of the Tajumulco volcano. My upbringing has heavily influenced my creativity and performances, which often pay tribute to my Indigenous culture. I lived in Guatemala City where I studied for a Bachelor Degree in Business Computing, and worked as a waitress. During this stage in my life, I began to live my authentic gender identity and became an activist for transgender rights and gained recognition in the country. This opened my eyes to the discrimination and persecution experienced by the transgender community in Guatemala.
In 2017, I was targeted by gang members, seeking to traffic me and attempted to kill me in the streets of Guatemala City when I refused to comply with their demands. Fortunately, I survived the attack, and was able to flee to the UK, where I have since lived in Manchester.
Since coming to Manchester, I have been performing and I joined Sheba Arts in 2018. I was the lead performer in a Dance Away The Spiders, produced by Sheba Arts and performed at HOME as part of Refugee Festival 2019. I set up my own creative group, Ixcanul Arts, which promotes my Mayan identity, Guatemalan culture and my transgender activism.
La Nagualita tells the story of an isolated village, haunted by the mysterious ‘Nagual’, a witch that transforms into a jaguar during the New Moon. A young woman lives as an outsider in her village, where she is tormented by the villagers, and comes to terms with her destiny that is entwined with the Nagual.
La Nagualita explores identity and belonging. Ancient myth and the contemporary struggle for trans equality collide in this piece of dance theatre.
Audience feedback:
‘This was the first time I attend a show that’s done by a refugee LGBT I hope she make the full show’
‘It was vivid. Powerful. Well done Sally’
‘Costumes were amazing’
In 2017, I was targeted by gang members, seeking to traffic me and attempted to kill me in the streets of Guatemala City when I refused to comply with their demands. Fortunately, I survived the attack, and was able to flee to the UK, where I have since lived in Manchester.
Since coming to Manchester, I have been performing and I joined Sheba Arts in 2018. I was the lead performer in a Dance Away The Spiders, produced by Sheba Arts and performed at HOME as part of Refugee Festival 2019. I set up my own creative group, Ixcanul Arts, which promotes my Mayan identity, Guatemalan culture and my transgender activism.
La Nagualita tells the story of an isolated village, haunted by the mysterious ‘Nagual’, a witch that transforms into a jaguar during the New Moon. A young woman lives as an outsider in her village, where she is tormented by the villagers, and comes to terms with her destiny that is entwined with the Nagual.
La Nagualita explores identity and belonging. Ancient myth and the contemporary struggle for trans equality collide in this piece of dance theatre.
Audience feedback:
‘This was the first time I attend a show that’s done by a refugee LGBT I hope she make the full show’
‘It was vivid. Powerful. Well done Sally’
‘Costumes were amazing’
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Interview with Sally Hilton
Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your background?
My name is Sally and I was born in Guatemala. I am a performance artist, and I discovered my love for dancing from a very young age. My first memories of performing started when I was 6 years old, during the school events of the Independence Day when people danced and celebrated wearing the traditional costumes.
In Guatemala I studied, worked and volunteered for LGBTQ+ groups. However, there is not that much visibility and rights for these communities in there, and everything is still very much under covered. In Manchester, my life is “the bomb”! I can dress, go and do whatever I want. I have a job that pays my bills, and I have opportunities to perform with organisations. I can be myself.
What is your main artform?
I am a performance artist. My work focuses on the Mayan dance. In my practice, I create my own version of this type of dance, wearing the traditional clothes, adding modern elements and making it more extravagant and colourful. My art always carries a hidden message, which I let the audience discover by themselves. Poetry and storytelling are also relevant aspects integrated into my work, which are very often created in collaboration with my mentor Sophie Gardiner who is a great writer.
I take inspiration from my own culture, which I bring into my performances as a way of keeping it alive and reconnecting with my roots. For example, my great-grandmother was an indigenous and she used to wear traditional clothes. Then, my grandmother inherited those clothes and she also used to wear them until her children forbade her to use them. Those clothes represented the indigenous tradition which was denied by further generations, due to embarrassment and the wish to fit in the post-colonial, white society in Latin America.
My work is also therapeutic for me, with a healing effect. It helps me explore and get over traumatic experiences I had, hoping that it can inspire others. The main message behind my art is that it is possible to change, transform your life and yourself, and that the future can be bright and hold positive things for you.
How and when did you start your creative career?
I firstly discovered my passion for dance and performance when I was a child, during the celebrations of the Independence Day in Guatemala. Also, I was one of the first openly transgender, indigenous women in my hometown and was appointed as Miss Transgender in San Marcos. It was after I won that competition that I decided to come to the UK.
Once here in Manchester, I joined Migrant Support, which invited me to take part in an event they organised. For that one, I wore the traditional dress that I brought from my country to deliver a 5 mins performance and it was then when I thought “That’s it! That’s my passion and what I want to do”. I was looking really extravagant with massive heels, performing in front of lots of people and when I saw their faces it was when I realised how much I enjoyed it. That was my first performance in the UK, and since then I carried on doing similar shows for organisations and other events.
What was the first project that you did with Sheba Arts?
It was “Dance Away the Spiders”. It was such a beautiful experience, and I was so grateful that they invited me to this project as it was the first time I was included in a women-only group. I really enjoyed the fact that women were from different cultural backgrounds. In this project, I was the lead character and it helped me build my confidence on stage even more. It also contributed to the development of my practice, as I learnt so much about performance-making and the small details of a project like this.
After that project, Sheba Arts commissioned my performance La Nagualita which I created in collaboration with artist Sophia Gardiner. For that one, I took inspiration from the traditional clothes of a Maya indigenous that I saw on the internet, which included the skin of a leopard. I then did some research and found out that people who wear these particular outfits are Naguales. A Nagual is, in Mesoamerican folk religion, a human being who has the power to magically turn into an animal form, which would be in that case, a leopard. I loved this idea of being partly human partly animal, and decided to base my performance on this concept.
My personal experience also played a big part in La Nagualita, which is connected to the Nagual story. The Nagual has an ugly childhood and suffers a lot in their teenage years, however when the animal part of this character comes along, the Nagual transforms into something really powerful. I identified with this process and decided to include it in the show.
La Nagualita was my first commissioned work and I really enjoyed the commitment and responsibility that this implied. It was a great learning experience for my artistic career, and it provided me with the right time and resources to develop a new idea from scratch and take it to the next level.
What are you hoping to achieve in this new collaboration with Sheba Arts?
I hope to achieve the next step in my career, and gain the skills and experience to produce my own shows in the future. This project will also provide me with the opportunity to collaborate with established artists who I haven’t worked with before, who will contribute to the development of my career. I would like to work with a director, performance artists, and costume designers to improve that element of the show further. This project will also allow me to take my work on a stage and reach a wider audience.
My name is Sally and I was born in Guatemala. I am a performance artist, and I discovered my love for dancing from a very young age. My first memories of performing started when I was 6 years old, during the school events of the Independence Day when people danced and celebrated wearing the traditional costumes.
In Guatemala I studied, worked and volunteered for LGBTQ+ groups. However, there is not that much visibility and rights for these communities in there, and everything is still very much under covered. In Manchester, my life is “the bomb”! I can dress, go and do whatever I want. I have a job that pays my bills, and I have opportunities to perform with organisations. I can be myself.
What is your main artform?
I am a performance artist. My work focuses on the Mayan dance. In my practice, I create my own version of this type of dance, wearing the traditional clothes, adding modern elements and making it more extravagant and colourful. My art always carries a hidden message, which I let the audience discover by themselves. Poetry and storytelling are also relevant aspects integrated into my work, which are very often created in collaboration with my mentor Sophie Gardiner who is a great writer.
I take inspiration from my own culture, which I bring into my performances as a way of keeping it alive and reconnecting with my roots. For example, my great-grandmother was an indigenous and she used to wear traditional clothes. Then, my grandmother inherited those clothes and she also used to wear them until her children forbade her to use them. Those clothes represented the indigenous tradition which was denied by further generations, due to embarrassment and the wish to fit in the post-colonial, white society in Latin America.
My work is also therapeutic for me, with a healing effect. It helps me explore and get over traumatic experiences I had, hoping that it can inspire others. The main message behind my art is that it is possible to change, transform your life and yourself, and that the future can be bright and hold positive things for you.
How and when did you start your creative career?
I firstly discovered my passion for dance and performance when I was a child, during the celebrations of the Independence Day in Guatemala. Also, I was one of the first openly transgender, indigenous women in my hometown and was appointed as Miss Transgender in San Marcos. It was after I won that competition that I decided to come to the UK.
Once here in Manchester, I joined Migrant Support, which invited me to take part in an event they organised. For that one, I wore the traditional dress that I brought from my country to deliver a 5 mins performance and it was then when I thought “That’s it! That’s my passion and what I want to do”. I was looking really extravagant with massive heels, performing in front of lots of people and when I saw their faces it was when I realised how much I enjoyed it. That was my first performance in the UK, and since then I carried on doing similar shows for organisations and other events.
What was the first project that you did with Sheba Arts?
It was “Dance Away the Spiders”. It was such a beautiful experience, and I was so grateful that they invited me to this project as it was the first time I was included in a women-only group. I really enjoyed the fact that women were from different cultural backgrounds. In this project, I was the lead character and it helped me build my confidence on stage even more. It also contributed to the development of my practice, as I learnt so much about performance-making and the small details of a project like this.
After that project, Sheba Arts commissioned my performance La Nagualita which I created in collaboration with artist Sophia Gardiner. For that one, I took inspiration from the traditional clothes of a Maya indigenous that I saw on the internet, which included the skin of a leopard. I then did some research and found out that people who wear these particular outfits are Naguales. A Nagual is, in Mesoamerican folk religion, a human being who has the power to magically turn into an animal form, which would be in that case, a leopard. I loved this idea of being partly human partly animal, and decided to base my performance on this concept.
My personal experience also played a big part in La Nagualita, which is connected to the Nagual story. The Nagual has an ugly childhood and suffers a lot in their teenage years, however when the animal part of this character comes along, the Nagual transforms into something really powerful. I identified with this process and decided to include it in the show.
La Nagualita was my first commissioned work and I really enjoyed the commitment and responsibility that this implied. It was a great learning experience for my artistic career, and it provided me with the right time and resources to develop a new idea from scratch and take it to the next level.
What are you hoping to achieve in this new collaboration with Sheba Arts?
I hope to achieve the next step in my career, and gain the skills and experience to produce my own shows in the future. This project will also provide me with the opportunity to collaborate with established artists who I haven’t worked with before, who will contribute to the development of my career. I would like to work with a director, performance artists, and costume designers to improve that element of the show further. This project will also allow me to take my work on a stage and reach a wider audience.