Based in San Juan and trained in dance and improvisation, nibia develops site-specific “choreographic events” to experiment with time, fiction and notions of territory. Along with dance scholar Susan Homar, nibia is co-editor of the book Habitar lo imposible: Danza y experimentación en Puerto Rico (2023) published by Editorial Beta-Local and the English edition published by University of Michigan Press Inhabiting the Impossible: Dance and Experimentation in Puerto Rico (2023). In 2022, the exhibition Choreopolitics: Brendan Fernandes & nibia pastrana santiago was presented at MASS MoCa. nibia’s work has been commissioned by de Appel (2020) and the Whitney Biennial (2019), as well as been supported by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and the Puerto Rican Arts Initiative Fellowship (2020-2023). She worked as co-director at Beta-Local in San Juan, and for a period of five years served as the Dance Program Academic Coordinator at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce. She holds an MFA in Dance with a Minor in Latina/o Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Postmasters in Performance and Scenography Studies from a.pass, Belgium.
She worked as codirector at Beta-Local in San Juan, and for a period of five years served as the Dance Program Academic Coordinator at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce. Her most recent solo exhibition Vaga Danza Agua was presented at El Depósito, Caguas. nibia has collaborated and performed in works by DD Dorvillier, Jennifer Monson/iLand and Miguel Gutiérrez.
