biography

Yanina Orellana is a movement artist and video-dance director from Guadalajara, México.

Her choreographic research has been presented in México at the XXII Festival de Danza Onésimo González (2019), at XXV Festival Internacional de Danza de Jalisco (2022) and at the Hemispheric Institute Encuentro (CDMX 2019); and internationally at the SOMADANCE EastWest Conference (2020). Yanina’s choreographic work has an 8 year trajectory; she presented “Altar Digital” in Museo Anahuacalli (CDMX 2022); “Todos somos hijos de la Chingada” in Mil Mundos (NY 2019), Human Resources (L.A. 2017) and at the International Forum of Performance Art (Greece 2021); and “Éxtasis Digital” at Highways Performance Space (L.A. 2019).

Since 2015, Yanina creates digital content: video-dance, interactive performances and participatory projects for social media. Her trans-disciplinary project “Altar Digital” was awarded the state grant PECDA Jalisco 2020. She presented her choreographic research “Videodance Laboratory Nuestro Altar: collective rituals for cuerpas and their memories” at Jalisco’s International Dance Festival 2022. Yanina was a judge of the International Videodance Festival “Donde pongo el ojo pongo la danza” from Festival Apantalla by Arte Escena Crisol (2019). She was a teaching artist at the pioneer educational and grant program “Focus the Body” by Secretaría de Cultura Jalisco (2022).

Yanina’s recent work as a teaching artist has been greatly informed by somatic movement and eco-somatic practices through her teachers Ashley Meeder (EastWest Somatics), Alexandra Ostos (Voces Curanderas) and Adriana Ordoñez (Eco-somatic School). She developed “Contempo-Somatic”, a contemporary dance class with a somatic approach; and has shared internationally in México, United States and Greece. Yanina collaborated with thanatologist and bio-ethicist Kalu Cancino to facilitate “Dance of all beings”, a collective movement ritual which they adapted from Joanna Macy’s “Work that reconnect”. In November 2021, they received a state grant to share this movement experience in “Arte al Parque” at Parque Metropolitano and Parque Agua Azul in Guadalajara. In 2022, Kalu and Yanina shared “Dance of all Beings” at Unidad de Conciencias Colectivas Terrestres at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in México City. After a year-long of movement & vocal co-research, Yanina and Fer Cabral shared “Movisonar Juntes” a workshop for collective expression (2022).

Yanina collaborated with Meryl Murman in the “Cassandra Project”, a body of work that investigates female archetypes and a somatic approach to performance. The “Cassandra Project” had residencies and held workshops for female-identifying about gender violence in: Estudio Teorema (Guadalajara, México 2020), Contemporary Arts Center and Art Klub (New Orleans, LA 2019-2021) and FIXin Arts (Thessaloniki, Greece 2019 & 2021).

During her professional career as a teaching artist she has worked with organizations such as: CalArts Community Arts Partnership, Invertigo Dance Theatre, YouTHink, Pieter Performance Space and Heidi Duckler Dance Theater. In 2017, she taught the CAP workshop “Arts Integration” to teachers in the Los Angeles United School District to integrate movement and dance pedagogical strategies with academic subjects.

In response to the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Yanina and fellow Latinx creatives (Aleja Cisneros, Daniel González, Anabel Romero and Andrés Pérez) founded Ginger Network (2020), a network of Latinx-Americans that connects artists with audiences. From 2019 to 2021, Yanina was part of re:FRAME, a cohort for choreographic research based in New Orleans. Yanina participated in the Encuentro de Creación Coreográfica EnTiempoReal 2018, managed by Israel Chavira and Sergio Rojas in Zamora, Michoacán.

Yanina is a certified Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist by the EastWest Somatics Institute led by Sondra Fraleigh. She received her Bachelors in Fine Arts degree from the Sharon Disney Lund Dance School at California Institute of the Arts (2011-2015).