Venezuelan, Brooklyn based dancer, performer and teacher. MFA in Dance (Taller de Danza de Caracas) B.A in Journalism (UCV), MA (with high honors) in Communication for Social Development (UCAB), MA in Performance Studies (Tisch, NYU).
As a teenager, I started my career as a contemporary dancer and developed my professional skills at the Fundación Escuela de Danza de Caracas, led by Yuri Cavalieri and José Ledezma –the contemporary dance pioneer in Venezuela, who studied under the tutelage of Merce Cunningham in New York City in the 60’s-. I was a member of the third cohort of graduates of this institution in 2002 (with honors). Since then, I have developed my teaching and artistic work as a member of the permanent cast of the Taller de Danza de Caracas Company, broadening my experience as an interpretive dancer participating in numerous workshops –Release, Graham, Limón, contact-improvisation- in Venezuela as in other countries, including Cuba, Costa Rica and the United States. Being a member of the permanent cast of the Taller de Danza de Caracas Company, I have participated in more than twenty sessions -one per year- of improvisation, choreographic composition techniques and physical work with Dutch choreographer Mirjam Berns, whose work is based on several dynamic and interpretive elements -such as the notions of space, energy, rhythm, and silence as choreographic proposals, the relation amongst dancers, motivation, commitment and sensitivity in motion- rather than plain technical skills. This approach to dance defined my profile as a contemporary dancer.I was a founder of the first cast of contemporary dancers at the National Venezuelan Dance Company, and I also been invited –as an interpreter- to several independent projects held by Venezuelan choreographers such as Armando Díaz, Félix Oropeza and Luis Villasmil, and Felix Ruckert (Germany) amongst others.
I’m currently living in New York City working as a part of the cast of Rastro Dance Company, led by Julieta Valero, and US-based choreographers and artists, including Kerry Cox , Mariangela López, and Danielle Russo, sharing my experience as a teaching artist a and performing at several dance and performance venues, including 24 hour project, Chez Bushwick, Teatro Circulo, Dumbo Dance Festival, and Gibney Dance Center, Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts Center, Judson Church, and recently at The armory show. I have been working as a performance artist and performance facilitator at The Museum of Modern Art, in different exhibitions including Lygia Clark’s, James Lee Byars’, David Lamelas’, and Yoko Ono’s, while developing my projects on performance and dance directed towards collaborative dance practices overseas, but also teaching and developing my scholarly. research on movement.
542 A Hancock St, #3.
Brooklyn, New York. 11233
vargas.vane@gmail.com
+1 929 2617477