Vanessa Vargas

Is a Venezuelan, Brooklyn based dancer, performer, dance educator and researcher. Her dance works examine liminality in the body by exploring sensory thresholds, the ambiguity and disorientation of intermediate states, inter-body encounters, the transitional status associated with migratory practices, deterritorialization, and the ephemerality of the body in exile. Vanessa holds a BFA in dance from the Escuela Taller de Danza de Caracas, a BA in Mass Media and journalism from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, an M.A in Mass Media and Social Research from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, and an M.A in performance studies from Tisch School of Arts.

Her choreographic projects have been presented internationally in venues and locations including Festival de Jóvenes Coreógrafos (Caracas) Dixon Place (NYC), Triskelion Arts Center (NYC), Creators Collective (NYC), Pioneer Works, (NYC) Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Movement Research at Judson Church, and Performance Mix Festival 33 New dance Alliance. In 2018, she was awarded both a scholarship and a residency at La Caldera (Barcelona), as a part of the Barcelona International Dance Exchange.

Her dance research shifts between theory and practice, examining dance and performance through her work in journalism, cultural studies and social theory. As a dance educator, researcher, and scholar, Vanessa has presented talks and lectures and facilitated workshops in the studio to merge theory and practice..

Vanessa has an extensive history as a dance practitioner in Venezuela. In 2002, she became part of the permanent cast of Taller de Danza de Caracas. In 2007, she joined The National Dance Company of Venezuela and collaborated with other choreographers and dancers in different independent projects in her hometown of Caracas. This included Agente Libre, Siete Ocho Danza contemporánea, Luis Villasmil, and AnaElenaBrito_Usuario; among others. She has been Based in New York since 2014, and has continued collaborating with choreographers and performing artist for companies including Danielle Russo Performance Project, Rastro, Accidental Movement, Kinematik Dance Theater, ChamekiLerner, Arantxa Araujo/Monique Blum, Douglas Dunn+Dancers, and Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez. She also has facilitated performances at MoMa for exhibitions and artists including Lygia Clark, James Lee Byars, David Lamelas, Yoko Ono, and Simone Forti’s “Dance Constructions” as a part of the exhibition “Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done”.