Photo : Morgane Guilou
Isabella Luna Onorato
Biography
Isabella Luna Onorato is an interdisciplinary dance artist from Bowen Island, B.C, home of the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. She completed her BFA in dance at Simon Fraser University and now resides in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Isabella has worked primarily as an emerging dance interpreter throughout her university career, having the privilege to learn and collaborate with Company 605, Flamenco Rosario, and Rob Kitsos.
With a focus in contemporary and flamenco dance practices, she creates work through improvisation, contemporary floorwork, and her first instincts in the body. Her dance practice involves a variety of mediums of exploration and documentation including, writing it all down, sound creation, and painting/drawing helps her visions for movement emerge. Her flamenco training has given her connection to her Argentinian roots from afar, as she explores nostalgia and her Canadian/Latinx heritage, continuous change and metamorphosis in her authentic everyday life. Her work has shifted into a dedication to archive and process her life.
Artistic Statement
An iridescent sludge draped over my body, much like the womb that once carried me. A fish in the ocean, a deer in its meadow, a cockroach over concrete? A little girl? Untitled, Is a piece is an improvised score created through a visceral connection to the body and my first instincts. This process began with examining where my body stores memory, and the similarities between myself and other animals. Contemporary floorwork, and improvisation techniques were used to physicalise my findings. Untitled, brings back an awareness to our natural animal self, it is both a tool and product of exploring the way the body holds memory, the connection between all animals, how nature shapes growth, how we age, and tangible sensations.
We are all one in the same.
To change is to continue.