Quinceañeras

Quinceañeras departs from the iconic Latin American ritual of the fifteenth birthday—the symbolic transition from girl to woman. In this celebration, rooted in colonial influences and reinvented meanings, the artists explore how traditions can be both restrictive and liberating. What does it mean to come of age within a system of imposed rituals, and how can these rituals be rewritten as forms of resistance and self-affirmation? As Colombian artists living in Europe, Luisa and Estefanía approach this theme from the perspective of migrants. Their friendship fueled their creative process: a space of trust, care, and playfulness in which they explore new forms of female representation. Through dance, music, and performative rituals, they transform the theater into a hybrid space where excess, emotion, nostalgia and absences intertwine.

• Luisa Fernanda Alfonso and Estefanía Álvarez Ramírez are two Colombian artists, from Bogotá and Medellín respectively. Since 2016 they have been creating works together. They approach dance and performance with a humorous capriciousness, with an urgency to investigate their latin-americanness and their love for one another. Their intimacy and close friendship are their drive for creation and also their tools for subversion. After going through extremely meticulous kinetographic studies at Folkwang University together for 4 years, their creations are a clear clashing of worlds: western composition structures depicting their nostalgia for home and their feeling of absence. ‘Quinceañeras’ is their first evening-length work to premiere late spring 2026.

• Luisa Fernanda Alfonso is a dancer and choreographer from Bogotá, Colombia. She trained at the Limón PSP in New York City, holds a B.A. in Dance from Folkwang University and a M.A. in Solo/Dance/Authorship (SODA) from HZT Berlin. With a strong foundation in classical and modern dance, she approaches choreography as a carefully orchestrated theatrical apparatus, often intertwined with her affinity to making music. Her works “Masterpiece” and "A humble concert by a decent woman” have been performed at various spaces such as Les Urbaines, Parallèle, PACT Zollverein, Rakete, MIND EATER, La Casa Encendida, Sophiensaele, BUDA, Kunstverein München, BIT Bergen, NMZ Essen, Teatro Juárez Guanajuato, among others. She has performed in works by Sanna Helena Berger, Leila Hekmat, Deva Schubert, Armin Hokmi, Xenia Koghilaki, caner teker, Emilie Gregersen, among others. She currently co-creates new work with her loved ones: Estefanía Álvarez Ramírez and Peter Rubel.

• Estefanía Álvarez Ramírez is a dancer, performer, and maker from Medellín, Colombia. She studied architecture in Colombia from 2010 to 2014. In 2019, she received a Bachelor in Dance from the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, and in 2021 a Master's degree in Dance from P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. In the past, her personal research has been driven by the notions of ‘built’ and ‘unbuilt’ constructions: an interweaving of craftspersonship, sentimentality and fiction. Imagery, nostalgia, humour and a dance departing from emotionality and technique are central to her artistic practice. She has collaborated with Kinga Jaczewska, Geert Belpaeme, Bosse Provoost and Ezra Veldhuis, Carly Rae Heathcote, Ode de Kort, Keren Kraizer, Lydia McGlinchey, Leila Hekmat, Lena Grossmann and Spazio Cura by Thorben Gröbel, among others. Since 2016 she collaborates with Luisa Fernanda Alfonso.