Mariana Valencia researches self-representation, collectivity and abstraction through dance. She was born in Chicago, IL amidst multicultural collaboration, attended Hampshire College with a vast constellation of queers in Amherst, MA, and in 2006 moved to New York to live as a choreographer. Valencia has held numerous residencies and received awards for her choreography, the most notable being the 2018 Bessie Award for Outstanding “Breakout” Choreographer, a 2018 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award, a 2015 Jerome Travel and Study grant, and a 2023 Creative Capital Award, she was also an artist in the Whitney Biennial 2019. Valencia’s dance work reaches beyond the stage: in 2019, she published two books of performance texts, Mariana Valencia’s Bouquet (3 Hole Press) and Album (Wendy’s Subway), she is a founding member of the No Total reading group and she has been the co-editor of Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence. Valencia has toured in the UK, Norway and the Balkans, and her major commissions include: The Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Shed, Performance Space New York, and Abrons Arts Center.
