WHO AM I

I was born in Albacete in August ’79. As a child, according to my mother, I took a long time to start walking, I delayed fighting gravity as much as I could. I like being on the ground, and I also like organic movement, the kind that seems to emerge on its own. I currently live in Valencia, and I’ve also lived in England, Japan, Mexico, and Lebanon. I started dancing at the age of seven, and until I was eighteen I studied ballet and Spanish dance at the Conservatory of Albacete. I was told I wasn’t good enough, so I studied journalism in Salamanca instead. In 2001 I moved to Barcelona with a Séneca scholarship. There I began my training in contemporary dance, studies I later deepened with a BA at the London Contemporary Dance School and through the Takween program in Beirut. As a dancer, I believed my career would be different, I wanted to work with Última Vez, Rosas, Akram Khan, Platel. I once worked with Sol Picó in Barcelona; much later, I also worked there with Sebastián G. Ferro, and several times with Silke Wiegand in Germany. In Valencia I collaborated with Spanish Brass, Pepa Cases, and La Lola Boreal. Before all that, I worked in a theme park in Japan, without a doubt the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done, I had fans and a monthly fixed salary. In 2010 I founded the company EnÁmbar Danza, which I closed in 2020. I almost always work for myself: I conceive, create, and dance my own pieces. I’m deeply interested in the body in motion and its ability to alter time and space. I enjoy blending languages, especially video, text, and dance. In addition to dancing, I take care of the production and distribution of my work, and I also teach dance, improvisation, and choreographic composition.

I understand the stage and the body as playful-serious spaces capable of generating reflection, encounter, transformation, and joy. I’m interested in dance and everything that pivots around it — even what seems to have nothing to do with it but ends up activating it. Humor is an ingredient that often appears in my work; it is especially present in Dance is my heroine, a project that explores the relationship between dance and public space and highlights the cultural legacy of choreographic repertoire. Another line of research in my work is based on monstrosity and physical distortion; pieces such as Anhel and NANA are examples of this. Although my works have been rejected many times, they have sometimes been selected for programs and festivals such as Danza a Escena, SAREA, Circuito de la Red de Teatros Alternativos, Platea, Red de Teatros y Feria de CLM, AECID Catalogue, Resolution! (UK), Nehna wel Amar wel Jiran (Lebanon), Tierra de Encuentros (Mexico), InShadow (Portugal), Festival Dansa València, Cádiz en Danza, Mes de Danza de Sevilla, among others. I am a regular resident artist in two very special spaces, Espai La Granja and Sala Carme Teatre, and the Institut Valencià de Cultura and the City Council of Valencia often support my creations and tours. For each project, I look for a specific artistic team that aligns with what I want to do — something I’m not usually very clear about at the beginning — but there are always one or more of these three driving forces pushing me: pleasure, rage, and/or boredom. I also create dance films.

RECOGNITIONS

2022 — IVC Awards Anhel Best Dance Performance, Best Direction, and Best Dancer.
2022 — First Prize Anhel Bucles–Carme Teatre Choreographic Competition.
2023 — APDCV Awards Anhel Outstanding Creation and Performance.
2024 — IVC Awards Nana nominated for Best Dance Performance and Best Direction.