It’s Not About You (2012)

Cuban-born/Berlin-based choreographer Judith Sanchez Ruiz created It’s Not About You as a solo just two months after she left the Trisha Brown Company. It was further developed into a duet this year during her residency with Hedwig Dances. The central image for the work is a rope with a noose. Ms. Ruiz notes, “The conceptual movement vocabulary for It’s Not About You reflects Brown’s influence. I was thinking that nothing in life is really about me/ us, we are part of it, but it is not about us …we don’t choose where we come from. This piece plays with the illusion of what you cannot see in space.”

Judith Sanchez Ruiz is a Cuban-born choreographer, performer and teacher, based in New York since 1999 and recently relocated to Berlin, Germany. She began her dance studies at the age of 11 at the National School of Arts in Havana, Cuba. She has performed with Trisha Brown Dance Company; David Zambrano; DD Dorvillier; Jeremy Nelson and Luis Malvacias, DanzAbierta Company; Mal Pelo Company; and, is currently working with Sasha Waltz & Dancers in Berlin. Ms. Sanchez has also developed various collaborative projects with innovative composers Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman; as well as visual artists; Stephen Talasnik, Sun K Kwak, Kentaro Ishihara, Jonathan Cramer, Burt Barr, Ian Trask, and Photographer Anna Lee Campbell. She was awarded “Mujeres Destacadas (Outstanding Women) 2008” by the Spanish newspaper in NYC, El DIARIO and was selected by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 Dancers to Watch” in 2010. Ms. Sanchez has presented her choreography throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Cuba. In 2009, she was selected as a participant in the cultural exchange program between the United States and Cuba by the Cuban Artists Fund (CAF). In 2010, she also served as evaluator for Creative Capital’s MAP Fund, and Movement Research Panelist for Judson Church Performance. Ms. Ruiz is currently member of the Artist Advisory Council at Movement Research, NYC.