Manuel Meza

Manuel Meza is a freelance dancer, choreographer, and photographer based in Berlin since 2017. Born and raised in Southern California, Manuel holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts and a Master of Arts degree in Choreography from the Folkwang Universität der Künste.

Manuel Meza was recently a funded researcher from the Fonds Darstellende Künste and NeuStart Kultur #TakeHeart program for his projects; Migrating… Queerness and My Brown Dancing Body and Because I Have Something to Say: An Exploration into the Queer Voice.

Manuel has performed, collaborated, and trained with artists such as YuanYuan Wang of the Beijing Contemporary Dance Theatre, Okwui Okpokwasili, Douglas Nielsen, Rosanna Gamson, Sophia Stoller, Mette Ingvartsen, Dimitri Chamblas, Rodolpho Leoni, Henrietta Horn, and Tamara Gvozdenovic.

Manuel most recently developed a new annual dance showcase, Against the Grain, which gives space and access to members of the Berlin dance world that create provocative and non-traditional performance work.

I view my class at the intersection of Modern and Contemporary dance techniques, utilising release and recovery explorations in the body that can be translated while moving in space upright or on the floor. The class begins with structured exercises to warm up our bodies and minds, awakening the spine and allowing the warmth to radiate outwards.

We will dance on the floor, upright, through space, and upside down. The class typically ends with movement vocabulary from my ongoing choreographic research. At the heart of my class is the joy of movement mixed with the urge to push your own physical and mental barriers.