BIOGRAPHY
Lorena Jaramillo (she/her) is a NYC based movement artist.
Born in Mexico City, she immigrated to the United States to earn her undergraduate degree in Dance and a minor in Arts for Communities from Marymount Manhattan College under the direction of Katie Langan. There, she had the pleasure of training under highly regarded dance professionals, such as Catherine Cabeen, Karen Gayle, Joao Carvalho, Tito Del Saz, Justin Sherwood, Juan Carlos Penuela, Harriet Clark, among others and performing works by Jenn Freeman, Nancy Lushington, Anthony Ferro and Annie Doss.
Upon graduation in 2019, she earned her first dance contract with the acclaimed Black female led company, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances. Lorena is currently in her second season with SLM Dances. Under her role with the company, she has performed the evening length piece “Purple” at the Clark Theater in Lincoln Center, participated in a Wise Fruit NYC digital offering curated by Brinda Guha and participated in multiple community engagement events with Lincoln Center Education. Soon after, she also earned a contracts as a performer with Queens based company, Nicole Kadar & Dancers: A Movement Company, with whom she performed the piece “Scattered Pieces” at the Queensboro Dance Festival. In 2020, she joined the movement collective Mobilized Voices (MOBIV) under the artistic direction of Dani Cole.
Lorena is an advocate for accessibility and visibility (with a focus on locality), which has led her to teach and perform with various activist organizations in the US and Latin America, most of which engage with Latin or indigenous dance forms and audiences. She has engaged with the New York/San Francisco based organization Juntos Collective since 2016. She performed in their 2016 Southern Mexico tour, as well as in NYC based venues like Gibney Studios and Folley Gallery, and taught multiple community workshops at Calpulli Dance, Bloomingdale Family Program, and Copiague High School. Other credits include Semillas Collective, Indorican Multicultural Dance Project, and CoopDanza, with whom she performed at the Queens Public Library and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As an immigrant and international artist, movement is an essential part of who I am. For me, dance is an embodied, revolutionary practice of joy and healing.
I use dance as a way to connect with communities around the world that are both similar and different from mine. I believe that our histories live in the body and that movement is a way to process the complicated relationships of culture, generational trauma, and radical joy.
Paired with my writings and research, which centers Latin American bodies and the trauma of colonization and machismo culture, I use dance as an exploration of identity and an outlet of healing. I am committed to learning and unlearning through movement, conversation, and deep listening.
