NAIA URRESTI

DANCER
CHOREOGRAPHER

CRESCENT

FESTIVAL MIRADAS AL CUERPO

TEATRO LAGRADA
CALLE ERCILLA 20, 28005 MADRID
28.06 AND 29.06 20:00h
30.06 19:00h

BUY YOUR TICKET AT THE THEATRE HALF AND HOUR BEFORE THE SHOW

To book your ticket call
(+34) 91 292 64 77
https://teatrolagrada.com/

Naia Urresti is a Venezuelan dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. From a really young age she starts her investigation of the body and performing arts through artistic gymnasts and theatre, studying acting in the Centre of Artistic Creation T.E.T. and taking part in diverse theatre workshops with Maria Fernanda Ferro, Diana Peñalver, among others. She worked as an actress in different professional projects such as La Ola, Jack y las Habichuelas Mágicas, La Princesa y el Dragón and La Leyenda de Robin Hood with the Theatre Group Skena; and The Importance of being Ernest with Amentia Teatro. She also started her labour as an educator guiding theatre workshops in schools with the company Skena. Later on she continued her education in Contemporary Dance, Modern Dance, Flying Low and Passing Through, Ballet, Improvisation, Release Technique and Contact Improvisation with different institutions in Caracas, such as Taller Experimental de Danza Pisorrojo, Taller de Danza de Caracas and UNEARTE, and having among her teachers Susan Bello, Evelyn Pérez, Cristina Gallardo, Ricardo Rodríguez, Inés Rojas y Carlos Penso. Having professionally dance with diverse venezuelan dance companies such as Pisorrojo (Nepente, The Nutcracker, Fértil, Tesela, Pilastra, Seis Ecos), Neodanza (Azar, Festival de Improvisación Día 13, El Boquete, Furor Navideño), Sieteocho (Análogo) and Proyecto Movimiento (O: Una Mirada a Oriente desde Occidente), she continued her investigation in Europe taking workshops with David Zambrano, Humanhood, Sharon Friedman, Siciliano Contemporary Ballet, Tomi Paasonen, Descalzhina Danza and taking part of the EBB Junior Company. Once in Germany, she starts her investigation as a choreographer developing solo pieces, among them Buscando (2020), 1990 (2021), Penelope (2022) and Crescent (2023) and presentig her projects in different spaces in Berlin and Europe.

CHOREOGRAPHIC PROJECTS

CRESCENT

A piece that talks about anger, about the fear of losing control, the fear of losing power, and how we as women restrain ourselves. As women we live our whole life policed, through criticism, catcalling, harassment, abuse and rape. We are expected to be desirable and beautiful, but we are the sole responsible for male desire and its consequences towards us. We are expected to enjoy our sexualities, but criticized and shamed if we do so. Our value is determined by the number of sexual partners we have, but we are lame and prudes if we don't have any. Where lies our power, when we are seen, and encouraged to see ourselves, never as subjects but as objects whose main value is the desire they inspire, but loose once we give our bodies to someone, as merely merch?

Choreography and Performance by Naia Urresti. Original Music by La Infanta de Bernardino. Photos by Laura DeAngelis and Steffen Wollmann.

Performed in Brotfabrik (Berlin, Germany), Festival Moving Poets Be Fe:male by Tanz Tangente (Berlin, Germany) and Bande á Part (Berlin, Germany).

PENELOPE

Penelope is a dance solo that speaks about female desire. Connecting different scenes, each one representing different aspects of romantic relationships between women, starts a reflexion about the mandates that romantic love imposes on women, not only in heteronormative relations but in every bond we have. The waiting, the desire and the dissatisfaction of this desire, the unrest, the pleasure, the abandon and the disappointment form part of this journey that we make when we expose ourselves, many times without taking care of us, when we liaise with one another. The performer weaves and unweaves herself waiting, constructing, without getting to an end, and getting trapped in the expectation and ideal of the relationships.

Choreography and Direction by Naia Urresti. Music By La Infanta de Bernardino. Photos by Luca Fiorella, Anna Wider and Henryk Weiffenbach.

Performed in Theater Expedition Metropolis (Berlin, Germany), Tangente Dance Festival No. 5 (Berlin, Germany) and Bandé a Part (Berlin, Germany).

1990

A girl is born. She'll learn to behave, to adapt herself, to fit into the form that society expects from her as a woman. Not too loud, always nice. If she wants more, she'll have to prove that she's strong, that she's capable, that she's smart, that she's different. She can play, but if she trusts too much, she's in danger, and it's her fault. Her body was made to bear children, it comes at a cost if she chooses not to. Other girls were born yesterday. More will come tomorrow.

Choreography and Direction by Naia Urresti. Music By La Infanta de Bernardino.

Performed in Zukunft am Ostkreuz (Berlin, Germany), and Lake Studios (Berlin, Germany).

BUSCANDO

There was a locust whose dream was to become a mammal. She went to the best surgeons in the world and they told her that it was possible, but they would have to remove the wings. She accepted, and she became very famous as a complicated medical case, everybody was taking pictures of her and admiring this science achievement. And she was happy. But sometimes, when she was alone looking at the summer nights, she missed to fly.

Choreography and Direction by Naia Urresti. Music By La Infanta de Bernardino. Video by Rolando González.

Projected in Social Media and in the Exposition Unclaimed Identities (Berlin, Germany).

WORK AS A DANCER

EBB JUNIOR COMPANY

One year process with the Junior group of the Elephant in the Black Box Company, directed by Jean Phillipe Dury.

1♀36 - Choreography by Marco Blásquez. Presented in Theatre Pradillo and Theatre of Canal (Madrid, Spain).

PROYECTO MOVIMIENTO

O: Una Mirada a Oriente desde Occidente (A look to Orient from Occident).

Choreography and Direction by Trina Frometa. Presented in the Art Gallery of the Universidad Metropolitana (Caracas, Venezuela) and the International Dance Festival EDANCO (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic).

SIETEOCHO

The Party wants to have the power out of love for the power itself. We don't care about the wellbeing of the others, we just care about the power.

Análogo - Choreography and Direction by Armando Díaz. Presented in the Hall Anna Julia Rojas of UNEARTE, and Theatre Cesar Rengifo in Petare (Caracas, Venezuela).

NEODANZA

Stable member of the dance company Neodanza. Participating in the projects:

Azar - Choreography and Direction by Inés Rojas, in collaboration with Carlos Penso. Presented in the Theatre Alberto de Paz y Mateos and Centro Cultural Chacao (Caracas, Venezuela).

Improvisation Festival Día 13, by Neodanza - Direction by Inés Rojas. With the performance of many artist of the Venezuelan dance scene. Presented in the Centro Cultural Chacao (Caracas, Venezuela).

And also in El Boquete and Furor Navideño, both directed by Inés Rojas and perfomed in Caracas.

PISORROJO

Stable member of the dance company Pisorrojo, perticipating in the projects:

Tesela - Direction and Choreography by Carlos Penso. Presented in Theatre Alberto de Paz y Mateos (Caracas, Venezuela).

Pilastra - Direction and Choreography by Carlos Penso. Presented in Theatre Alberto de Paz y Mateos, Plaza Cubierta (open spaces) of the Central University of Venezuela, Theatre Teresa Carreño (Caracas, Venezuela).

Seis Ecos - Direction and Choreography by Carlos Penso. Presented in the University Art Gallery of the UCV (Caracas, Venezuela).

Fértil - Direction and Chorography by Carlos Penso. Presented in the University Art Gallery UCV, Aula Magna UCV, and Theatre Alameda (Caracas, Venezuela).

Nepente - Direction and Choreography by Carlos Penso. Presented in Theatre Centro TET, Theatre Teresa Carreño, Plaza Cubierta (open spaces) UCV, Theatre Alberto de Paz y Mateos, Museum of Bellas Artes, Diverse Schools and Street Festivals, Theatre Alameda, Universitarian Art Gallery UCV (Caracas, Venezuela).