Artist statement
I develop my artistic practice in the dance and performing arts field as a performer, choreographer, researcher, pedagogue and writer. I understand the body as the place of the experience and dance as a tool for critical transformation.
I studied Modern Dance at the Amsterdam Highschool of Arts (2002-06); I got a DanceWEB fellowship for ImpulsTanz 2017; and followed an MA on Museology and Critical Studies at the Independent Studies Programme of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona.
I co-founded and was artistic director of Espacio Práctico from 2010 until 2019; and since 2014 I teach Dance Composition at the Conservatori Superior de Dansa of Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, in which I have been a member of the Direction Team from 2019 to 2022, first as a Head of the Dance Pedagogy Studies and later as Vice-Dean.
My work unfolds between research, pedagogy, history and the development of new methodologies for the performance practice. Among my last works there is èpica, The Touching Community with its publication Lo tocante and the performative lecture Sweating the discourse: an embodied critique, recently acquired by the Jaume Morera Museum in Lleida (Spain), and its homonymous publication, currently out of print. Together with Jaime Conde-Salazar we have founded CondeGalí B.L., a structure for research, creation and publication with which we have created two workshop-performance for children: DIT DIT (2019) and Sujeto·Verbo·Predicado (2022); the Touching Improvisation Labs; and the launching of SUDOR, an editorial project. I collaborated with artists such as Xavier Le Roy, Cuqui Jerez, Dora García, Nicole Beutler, Nora Heilmann, Andrea Boziç, David Zambrano, and Silvia Sant Funk among others; and did the movement and stage direction for singers C. Tangana and Maria Arnal & Marcel Bagès.
I have been a member of the jury of the Miquel Casablancas’ Visual Arts Prize 2013, the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2015, Ciutat de Palma – Antoni Gelabert International Visual Arts Prize 2020; and have been a member of the Culture Council of Barcelona (2016-19).
After studying the MA program my artistic practice made an important turn. I understood another way to approach my practice as a former dancer and how to use that specific knowledge in different contexts. The research projects I have carried out have been the nurturing source from which I could develop all sorts of other projects in different areas: pedagogy, performance and writing. I came to realize the interrelated relation between these areas and the way one feedback the others. The possibility to have a teaching position in a public institution has supported a steady practice and a commitment with choreography as an art form. The privilege of being in a daily relation with students and their interests nurtures and challenges my ideas and methodologies that get nurtured as well by the work I do as an artist. The capacity of being able to play with this spectrum of practices and contexts is not always easy but is definitely worth trying.
As a dancer I had an international career because I had the privilege to study in The Netherlands and that opportunity opened the doors to work with renowned choreographers from Northern Europe: Xavier Le Roy, Nicole Beutler, David Zambrano, Cuqui Jerez. Those ten years collaborating with these renowned artists offered me a great frame for learning different ways to approach an artistic practice.
Once I moved back to Barcelona I decided to work mostly in a local context, to travel less and weave other sorts of professional relations with colleagues, theaters, museums and creation centers such as Graner, Mercat de les Flors, La Poderosa, La Porta, La Caldera, MACBA, etc.
I spent the last three years in the direction team of the Conservatori Superior de Dansa of Institut del Teatre in Barcelona. This position in a public institution has been a great challenge and opportunity to unfold new management and pedagogic skills and understand how to work within a big structure. This intense commitment (directing a school during the pandemic times hasn’t been an easy job) did not help to keep developing my artistic practice as I used to before. Now I am ready and willing to go back to research, create, write and perform again.
The MA program also guided me and gave me visibility within the visual arts field, which was a gift because I could learn how they were facing similar conceptual and artistic issues. Now that I am learning to play piano is also opening up other ways to approach similar issues: those of composing with a given code. My current interest is to learn and observe the relations between the rules and principles of a given language: dance, music and literature, and play with the different composition strategies of each language. This new research will guide toward a new production to be premiered in February 2024 at Mercat de les Flors.