BIOGRAPHY
NIDIA MARTINEZ BARBIERI
I was born and raised in a university city 60 km from Buenos Aires, called La Plata, or “the city of diagonals”. My mother had emigrated from the cold mountains, Bariloche, and my father from the hot plains, Gobernador Crespo-Santa Fe, to study and develop their careers. In La Plata they formed a family, co-creating five children together, to which was added my father’s first-born. I grew up in that family, close to many siblings, and far from other relatives.
Ballet and the Catholic religion were my first loves. Love that lasted until well into adolescence. Later, the discovery of contemporary dance, improvisation, somatic techniques, my passage through the faculty of psychology, the encounter with anthropology, philosophy, sociology, and psychopedagogy, made me change that love towards a less devoted and more insightful wish of discovering. My world expanded, and so my desire to know more.
LEARNING
Ballet: I started to practise ballet when I was 9, after I saw for the first time a dancer performing on TV, and while limiting her movements I imagined that I was flying.
Contemporary dance: Contemporary dance techniques and improvisation appeared in my life at 12. That was the inflection point in my life, because I discovered that I didn’t need to dance only looking at myself in a mirror, but that I could also move by feeling my body. And that I didn’t need to only copy what the teacher showed me, but also I could create my own movements.
After high school I had many options to study, so, in 1995 I began Psychology at La Plata University and Contemporary Dance at La Plata Dance School. Even if Psychology was fascinating, the body experiencing was much more pleasant; therefore, dance became my priority. The time I spent at the dance school was full of discovery, creativity, and deep connection with people that are still friends, collaborators, source of inspiration, and support. During that time I trained as well with guest teachers coming from Europe that transmitted the “new trends” in Contemporary dance. I was especially attracted to those that used floor work (Flying Low), and improvisation as a performance (or Instant composition).
Eutony: In 2002, when I obtained the diplomas in “Contemporary dancer” and “Dance teacher”, I started to practise Eutony, which is a somatic technique based in the development of body awareness. By developing proprioception, Eutony allows practitioners to be in deep contact with their bodies, helping them to recognise limitations and to develop their capacities. That was for me the key to start to experience my own body subtly, much more than I just had the dance resource. This is how I started to train more intelligently, healing old injuries and preventing many new ones. My increased sensitivity transformed not only my dance but my life in general. I started to be more present in everyday life, something that I later discovered is called mindfulness, and to sense more other people, which I later discovered is called empathy. I assumed what years later discovered was a phenomenological philosophy posits: that the body is the only way to go through this existence.
Tango: The film “Tango feroz” (1993) inspired a generation of young people to dance tango. I went to take a tango lesson together with my sisters when I was around 17. Later on, in different moments of my education, I took Argentine tango lessons. I loved the dance, but I felt rejection to the “macho code” that at that time imperated. Many years later, living as an immigrant in Europe, I started to embrace tango, and to appreciate it as a dance and as an expression of the culture from which I come from. Not everyone in Argentina dances tango, but much of the Argentinean “rioplatense” cosmovision is expressed by tango lyrics and poetry. The tango pulse reflects much of the walker’s rhythm in those cities. The tango embrace is a sample of how tactile we are as South Americans compared to Sweden (in Sweden people greet each other by raising their hands and saying “Hej!”, but on the other side of the world we kiss on the cheek and hug each other effusively). Living in Europe I trained tango with world famous Argentinian tango teachers, such as Chicho Frúmboli and Juana Sepúlveda, and Carlitos Espinoza y Noelia Hurtado.
Theatralic flavours: Clown training with Darío Levin, was one of the most therapeutic and transformative experiences I had, because I felt the power of being vulnerable and letting others see who I really am. I started to incorporate the principles of Alba Emoting, which is a technique developed by a chilean – north american theatre director and neuroscientist. Alba offers an effective method to experience emotions, using face expression and birthing to access them.
Contact Improvisation: with Fernanda Tappatá made me discover my body’s physicality and its relation to gravity. The sensation of my body in its tri dimensionality changed my way of dancing. The listening of others’ bodies made me develop my own proprioception.
Training in Brussels: from 2011 to 2013, I took daily training with the most well known dancers and choreographers at that time, such us Les Slovacks and David Zambrano.
Training in Malmö: In 2013 I moved to Malmö. Since then I have trained daily at Danscentrum Syd, mainly ballet, modern jazz, and contemporary dance with local and international teachers. I have been part of exchanges with dancers and choreographers that share their research.
Currently: I am studying the distance course: CCC (Curricular Complementation Cycle) to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in Expressive Languages (UCASAL University, Argentina). I am also studying courses in the universities of Umeå, Karlstad, Malmö, Stockholm and Lund, in Sweden. I keep training at Danscentrum Syd, in Malmö.
PERFORMATIVE
I have experience as a dancer and choreographer since 2000, creating my own pieces, working in collective creations, and directed by other choreographers.
Over the years the creative work in Contemporary dance has become the best way of processing my experiences and expressing my subjectivity as an artist. I canalise my desires, emotions, dreams, philosophic questions in each creative process.
As a choreographer, in a short or long process, my goal is to find the movement vocabulary that this specific piece needs. I take different ways for creation. I find it useful to always refer to the basics and observe the use of space, time, energy and muscular tonus, applying Laban’s movement analysis.
As a dancer, in the last few years it has become more necessary to create a kind of character, going towards what some call physical theatre or dance teater. That character sometimes interacts with the audience, as is the case with my dance-clown character “Sisi López”.
When I dance tango, I use the traditional steps, figures, musicality, leader and follower roles, but I find it interesting and challenging to perform tango from my Contemporary dance mindset, which means that I question what I do and how it could be different. Since 2015 I have used tango to explore tactile communication, and to inspire my creation by tango’s culture.
EDUCATIONAL
Even if the different techniques and styles of dance that I teach have their specificities, all of them are crossed by my particular interest, which is proprioceptive development. I hope that the bodily experience of the students is pleasant and that it helps them to be connected with their bodies in daily life.
Contemporary Dance: I started teaching even before I finished Dance School, to some of my sister’s friends when I was 20 years old, and officially since 2003. I have taught regular classes for young, to adults, and to children, in private and public institutions, as well as workshops in Argentina and South America. In Sweden I have taught children, young and adults in Malmö and Lund in places such as Medborgarskolan, Karavan, Malmö Dance Center, Drömmarnas Hus, and have worked in workshops for professionals at Danscentrum Syd.
Pilates: In 2006 I got the Pilates instructor certification, and I started to teach in 2007. Pilates is an amazing tool that helps me as a practitioner keep my body in balance. To teach this method makes me feel good. Basically the body awareness, the strength of the core, the breathing and coordination are the points that I consider most important and effective to focus on. In 2017 I got a certification in Total Barre trainer (Stockholm Pilates Center), which is a combination of ballet basic steps and Pilates principles in standing position, using the ballet barre as support. It is intensive training with enormous benefits to keep the pelvis stable and strengthen legs.
Tango Argentino: I organise different activities in which I use tango as a technique, expressive
language,way of communication, and inspiration to the creation. I have taught tango at
Tangokompaniet with Tommy Leite, combining his tango experience with my knowledge on somatique techniques, in regular classes, and I have worked in collaboration with Daniel Carlsson, Sony La, Anna Sol, and Tava Sieh in specific workshops combining also somatique tools with tango.
MANAGEMENT
As soon as I started to develop my career as an independent artist I understood that I needed to generate both, the artistic work and the contexts to make it grow. I learned from teachers, colleagues and friends from independent dance in Argentina that working in collaboration is a great key to create more opportunities. For that reason I take initiative as organiser and coordinator in different activities that bring together artists, and that reach varied audiences. Living in Brussels I volunteered as organiser of the artistic festival Puentes, organised by the Argentine Embassy. In Malmö I generate interdisciplinary experiences between dancers of different styles, and artists from different fields, such as theatre and music, to create both improvised and setted pieces. I have impulsed a training group for improvisation open to professionals and amateurs at Danscentrum Syd. I have run a Dans and Tango Festival in Skillinge Teater, and organised events that involve contemporary dance and tango practitioners. With the collective Nya Rörelsen – koreografer i Skåne I have done projects that include immigrant populations and youth.