Cecilia Bengolea (born 1979,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

) is an Argentinian artist, choreographer and dancer. Her works have been shown or performed at the

Desert X Desert X is a site-specific, contemporary art exhibition that is held in the Coachella Valley in Southern California. The inaugural Desert X was held from February 25 to April 30, 2017, and has held subsequent exhibitions every two years. The nex ...

of the

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, the

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or the

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amongst other venues.

Early life and education

Bengolea was born in Buenos Aires, and began to take

Jazz dance Jazz Dance is a performance dance and style that arose in the United States in the early 20th century. Jazz Dance may allude to vernacular Jazz, Broadway or dramatic Jazz. The two types expand on African American vernacular styles of dance that ...

lessons at the age of twelve. Having graduated from high school, she enrolled into the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

to study Art History and Philosophy. later also been influenced by the traditional dance culture in South-America in

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and

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. In 2001 she moved to

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, and followed up on her studies at the Ex..e.r.c.e program in

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, instructed

Mathilde Monnier Mathilde Monnier (born 1959 in Mulhouse) is a French choreographer. She directs the ''Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon'' in Montpellier. She collaborates with notable artists throughout various disciplines, su ...

Professional career

From 2005 onwards she developed a working relationship with François Chaignaud with who realized several major performances together until 2015. They have created the choreography for pieces at the Opera of Lyon and the Opera Lorraine in France and also the

Pina Bausch Philippine "Pina" Bausch (27 July 1940 – 30 June 2009) was a German dancer and choreographer who was a significant contributor to a neo-expressionist dance tradition now known as . Bausch's approach was noted for a stylised blend of dance move ...

Dancecompany in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

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. She has collaborated with the video artists

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English people, English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is Collaboration, collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the Idealiz ...

as well as Dominique Gonzalez-Forster.

Dancing style

She is particularly interested in anthropological research on contemporary and archaic forms of dance, and devotes herself to learning techniques, movements, and choreographies from around the world, using them to shape her own artistic vocabulary. Her dance style has been influenced by the traditional dance culture in South-America in

and

. Since 2015 several of her works are strongly influenced by the

Dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots reggae, roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2 ...

from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Awards

2009, together with François Chaignaud, Paris critique choreographic revelation Award 2014, Young Artist Prize Gwanju Biennale

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bengolea, Cecilia 1979 births Dancers from Buenos Aires University of Buenos Aires alumni Living people Argentine performance artists Argentine women artists 21st-century Argentine artists Argentine dancers Contemporary dancers