This site has limited support for your browser. We recommend switching to Edge, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.

Real Men

At a time when masked ICE thugs are conducting raids up and down California, and the Supreme Court has just decreed the US government can continue arresting people based on the color of their skin, it was entirely appropriate that Rogelio Lopez’s new show opened with a voice over acknowledgement of the “horrors” besieging America’s Latino communities. What was surprising was how quickly the atmosphere inside a packed Dance Mission Theater shifted to one of playfulness, laughter, and liberatory celebration.

Performance

Rogelio Lopez and Dancers: “Mucho Machismo y Pocos Machos”

Place

Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco, CA, September 14, 2025

Words

Rachel Howard

From left: Kevin Gaytan, Luis Isiordia, Rogelio Lopez, Matt Han, and Josue Oregel in “Mucho Machismo y Pocos Machos” by Rogelio Lopez. Photograph by Yvonne Portra

subscribe to the latest in dance


“Uncommonly intelligent, substantial coverage.”

Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.

Already a paid subscriber? Login

“Mucho Machismo” is funny from the moment its sassy title appears in old fashioned lettering, silent-film style, on a large screen. (Roughly translated, the hour-long dance is called “A Lot of Machismo and Few Men.”) The silent film goes on to introduce our main characters: five stereotypical manly men in jeans and ten gallon hats and big belt buckles, and then, in a sudden jump cut, “These Bitches”—the same dancers transformed into their alter egos, dressed in short shorts and crop tops, strutting across the screen in full fabulousness as the largely Spanish-speaking audience wolf-whistled and hollered. Make no mistake, this dance was going to be a party—but there was emotional depth here, too, along with narrative intelligence, fabulous costumes, and impressive craft.

Director of the Dance Program at St. Mary’s College of California (full disclosure, I currently teach creative writing at St. Mary’s, but have no connection to the dance program), Lopez grew up dancing Mexican folklorico, with its mariachi-driven traditions of men in boots stamping out rhythms while the women swish colorful skirts. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from the dance program at California State University, Long Beach. Interestingly, all of Lopez’s four fellow dancers in “Mucho Machismo” studied at San Jose State University, where the former Limón Dance Company member Gary Masters built a dance program encompassing training in many modern dance techniques, as any program must, but also especially the technique of José Limón. “Mucho Machismo” brilliantly entwines these folklorico and modern dance traditions with a storyline that weaves perfectly between them.

From left: Josue Oregel, Matt Han, Rogelio Lopez, Kevin Gaytan, and Luis Isiordia in “Mucho Machismo y Pocos Machos” by Rogelio Lopez. Photograph by Yvonne Portra

After a boot-stomping and occasionally hip-thrusting group number to a song about all kinds of spicy chiles, Lopez himself emerges as the main character, a barrel-chested guy who secretly longs to toss on a flowered silk robe, as he does in a flitting little number to the West Side Story tune “I Feel Pretty.” He meets up for a date with his masked seducer, Josue Oregel, and a memorable duet over a restaurant table to an operatic rendition of “Besame Mucho” ensues.

The journey to a new and more complicated identity has begun, and folklorico crashes in, with Kevin Gaytan, Luis Isiordia, and Matthew Han on horses (well, folklorico style horse heads), galloping all over the intimacy and pushing Lopez back towards the closet. Spoiler alert, a reprise of “Besame Mucho” helps bring us to a triumphant queer ending.

Along the way, “Mucho Machismo” showed some room for growth: each duet could use more emotional arc and tighter partnering dynamics. But who cares when the next group number brings us two men in assless chaps pairing up with a duo in G-strings and platform stilettos? The group numbers are where Lopez’s craft really shines. Did this cheeky quartet need to be well-choreographed to get us to cheer? Of course not. But it was full of fabulously textured group phrases. 

By dances’ end, the macho men and the “bitches” found a new harmony of identity, wearing masks and folklorico dresses, bedecking Lopez in a rainbow-ribboned folklorico skirt. The fabric twirled through the air in rippling excitement. The crowd stamped and clapped along. In the face of current horrors, there was great beauty.

Rachel Howard


Rachel Howard is the former lead dance critic of the San Francisco Chronicle. Her dance writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Hudson Review, Ballet Review, San Francisco Magazine and Dance Magazine.

comments

Featured

Moving Memory
REVIEWS | Gracia Haby

Moving Memory

I make my way up the stairs at the Substation. Along all four sides of the large room, rows of seats are arranged. Event warning: sudden loud noises. Content warning: death. I find a seat along the long side wall, with my back to the window.

Continue Reading
The Art of Stillness
BOOKSHELF | INTERVIEWS | Cecilia Whalen

The Art of Stillness

Martha Graham said that “movement never lies”—but what of stillness? For NYC Dance Project’s latest book, Martha Graham Dance Company: 100 Years, photographers Ken Browar and Deborah Ory set out to explore Martha Graham’s legacy through photos.

Continue Reading
Points of View
REVIEWS | Gracia Haby

Points of View

From the back of the stage, a single searchlight points in the direction of the audience, and as it does, it sweeps across the forms of seven dancers in Stephanie Lake’s “Seven Days.”

Continue Reading
Stardust
REVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Stardust

“Are we cancelled now?” James Jordan queries mischievously, eyes shining. He’s just made some chancy quips regarding recent Strictly Come Dancing controversies, alluding rather than directly addressing the issues. “We were the good boys on all of our series,” he insists.

Continue Reading
Good Subscription Agency