My process as a choreographer and performer compounds dance and text, and my subjects are both marginal and popular. By juxtaposing humor and gravity, speech and movement, song and silence, I create performances that enable the audience to learn about themselves as they learn about me. My work has been commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, The Whitney Museum, The Shed, The Public Theater, and Performance Space New York. I've toured nationally and internationally in England, Norway, Macedonia and Serbia. In 2019, I published two books of performance texts, "Album" (Wendy's Subway) and "Mariana Valencia's Bouquet" (3 Hole Press); I'm a founding member of the No Total reading group and I've been the co-editor of Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence (2016-17). I've received a Bessie Award for Outstanding "Breakout" Choreographer (2018), I'm a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award to Artists grant recipient (2018), a Jerome Travel and Study Grant fellow (2014-15), and was a Whitney Biennial artist (2019). My performance collaborations include works by Jules Gimbrone, Elizabeth Orr, Kate Brandt, Kim Brant, AK Burns, Guadalupe Rosales, Juliana May, Em Rooney, robbinschilds, Kim Brandt, Morgan Bassichis, Fia Backstrom and MPA. I received my BA from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA (2006) with a concentration in dance and ethnography.

COURSES TAUGHT:
Performance
Textual Strategies in Performance

LINKS:
www.marianavalencia.work
New York Times Feature

Photo credits: Maria Baranove