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MARIELYS BURGOS MELÉNDEZ

Movement Artist & Interdisciplinary Researcher

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"Everywhere I go

writes me differently"

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I am a movement artist, researcher, writer, healer, and traveler.


I move in, zig-zag, out, up & down,
all around, and in-between

to embrace the fragility

of our human existence.

… each word a thread that weaves

our dreams together.

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Our -moving- bodies tell many stories.
We are histories in

the making

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TRAJECTORY

       I was 24 years old when I decided to study contemporary dance. In the first day of class, my mentor Anamaría Amador Miranda (MFA, Tisch-NYU) opened an anatomy and kinesiology book. That was the beginning of a new life (re)discovering my own body. We met twice a week at a little wooden floor studio in Santurce, Puerto Rico. I learned a “potpourri” of techniques like Modern Dance (Graham, Horton, Humphrey, Limón, etc.),  Laban/ Baternieff Fundamentals, Yoga, West African Dance, postmodern dance, and dance improvisation. A sociologist at heart, I also dove into the political, philosophical and historical aspects of dance grounding myself in the importance of accessible and contextualized dance practices that enable self-discovery, well-being, and social engagement.

 

Fascinated by movement improvisation, I deepened in this craft under tutelage of Noemí Segarra (MFA, Temple University and mentee of Merián Soto). Simultaneously I studied at the Continued Education Dance Program of the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico and took workshops on Alexander Technique, Dance Composition, Anatomy, Dance Therapy, and Authentic Movement. From 2011-2013, I pursued an MA in Dance Studies at The College at Brockport (SUNY) as a  Diversity Fellowship Awardee where I also received other departmental and institutional recognitions including the Distinguished Professor Award for Graduate Research to complete my thesis.

 

Intersecting dance with disciplines like Women & Gender, Latin American & Caribbean and Performance Studies, allows me to generate creative research methodologies for experiential and embodied knowledge to emerge.

"I aim for epistemologies
of the moving bodies -complex, diverse, and un-fixed-; 

'
knowings' that portray
the realities of our existences.
As we are. As we become." 

 

Since 2014, I have been exploring “ongoingness” and “dislocation” as ways of being. Moving mostly among Puerto Rico, Greece, and New York City -and transiting many places in between- I question conceptions & circumstances of mobility/migration to generate narratives/poetics of these experiences and documentation strategies. Instant devising, ritual performance, video art, and creative writing are my main mediums of expression; collaborations my preferred creative interaction. Everyday life settings and spaces serve as a laboratory to relate, engage, co-exist, imagine, de/re-construct, re-create & propose ways of knowing.

 

I have shared my practices in academic institutions like Centro de Investigación Coreográfica (CICO) in Mexico, The University of Edinburgh, Athens Polytechneio, The American College of Greece, The Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico, and SUNY, Dutchess, as well as other non-academic settings, like Gibney Dance (NYC) & Akropoditi Dance (Greece).

 

Embracing the body as a living archive and intentions/ actions as transformative dynamics, I fiercely believe in art making as a healing endeavor that creates safer spaces/ places for us to move, be, belong and love. 

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BLOG

Heal. Dance. Travel.

 

 

WORK
Recent. Upcoming. Collaborations

 

I would love love love 
to hear from you.
Send your message below or write me an email: marielysbm.moves@gmail.com

Thanks for your message!

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