EXÓTICA

Many dancers and choreographers of colour from different parts of the world and cultural contexts or of mixed heritage enjoyed great success in early 20th-century Europe. Still, they have been forgotten and silenced because they either did not fit in the Western canon or represented monoculturally defined European nation-states. Choreographer Amanda Piña breathes new life into their works with EXÓTICA. 

La Sarabia, (1878-1988), Nyota Inyoka, (1896-1971), François (Féral) Benga (1906–1957) and Leila Bederkhan (1903-1986) once travelled through Europe presenting their dances. What kind of work did these dancers and choreographers of colour made at the time? How can we understand it today? What is still present of their contexts today?  

EXÓTICA is an exuberant ritual conceived as a séance through which dancers re-appear as ancestors, as queer and femmes of colour from the past and the present, and come into conversation with the gaze of the audience. Their performative presence opens a space for reenactments; initiating invocations, exorcisms, and a celebration. 
 
• Amanda Piña is a Chilean-Mexican artist living between Vienna and Mexico City. Her work embodies the political and social power of movement, grounded in indigenous forms of knowledge and world-making/maintaining practices. A versatile artist, working through choreographic and dance research, creating and curating performance, educational frameworks, and writing and editing publications around what she refers to as Endangered Human Movement Practices. Her work is concerned with the colonisation of the arts and is to be found within performing and visual arts contexts. She will co-host one of the editions of the More-Than-Human-Encounters series starting in May.