About
Nuria
Legarda
Nuria Legarda is a theatremaker and stage director, choreographer, performer, and teacher of performing arts, based in London and Barcelona, whose work centres around physical and visual dramaturgy.
She was awarded Best Show by the Premis Projectes d’Escenificació de l’Institut del Teatre de Barcelona for her first piece La Cena (2008), which was also nominated for Best Show at the Butaca de Teatre de Catalunya Awards.
Her work has been produced and performed at a number of prestigious venues across Europe and the United States including Black Tie at the Copenhagen Stage Festival (DK); Claim Your Place I+P at the Festival TNT Catalonia (ES), Festival Cos Catalonia (ES), Festival BAD (ES), Topia Arts Center (USA), Centro Español in New York (USA); La Cena at the Festival Temporada Alta Catalonia (ES), Sala Beckett Barcelona (ES) and Écumes at the Festival NEO Barcelona (ES), Espace Périphérique – La Villette Paris, (FR), CDN Reims (FR), O Espaço do Tempo in Montemor-O-Novo (PT) among others.
She approaches theatre devisal from a unique perspective, which is interested in the hybridisation and superposition of scenic layers, striving for an expansion in the potential meaning born by human & non-human elements; a relational dramaturgy, the sum of which, amplifies experiential impact to a level greater than each component could elicit individually.
Interdisciplinarity also defines the design of her artistic teams, which are diverse in artistic skillsets and cultural backgrounds.
A connecting thread of exploration in her work lies in probing at the limits of normative behaviour, and embodying the notion of society as a direct manifestation of our internal processes. Her productions intend to reflect uncomfortable emotional terrain back at us through use of hypnotic and bold visual poetics.
She continues to build upon a multifaceted career that combines her original productions, artistic collaborations as a choreographer, work as a creative advisor in devising processes and performer; as well as academic study of avant-garde contemporary devising methods, organising periods of subsidised research, and being involved in the devisal processes of other artists such as Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, directors of the Belgian company Peeping Tom; for which she was awarded a scholarship (2018-2019) by the SGAE; all of which has led her to develop a singular methodology rooted in physical intuition, respect and care in the workspace, and which promotes the relationship between process and creation as entirely reciprocal.
Artistic career
She has collaborated as a choreographer and movement director, with directors of the calibre of Michael De Cock in L’aquimista, Teatro Nacional de Catalunya; José Troncoso in Las Asamableístas, Mérida International Classical Theatre Festival; Carme Portaceli in Frankenstein, Teatre Nacional de Catalunya; Roberto Romei in Lehman Trilogy, La Villaroel y Grec Festival; Julio Manrique in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Teatre Lliure amongst others.
As an artistic collaborator, she has contributed to the work of artists such as Paulo Duarte company la Mecanika en Andere in CDN de Strasbourg, Scène National Montbéliard, Printemps de Comédiens, Montpellier; Elinor Lewis at Orchard, at The Place’s Resolution, Livevibe dance and Choreodrome 2018 and at Aerowaves 2019; with Rubén Molina in Mátame, at the Théâtre du Gymnase, Paris; Mary Galloway in Magdalene at Arcola Theatre, Battersea Arts, London; La Zampa CDC, Toulouse; among others.
As a performer she has participated in productions directed by Franco di Francescantonio, Joan Baixas, Javier Mariscal, Joseph Nadj, Tomeo Verges among others; at Rendez-vous avec l’Espagne MiRA Festival! at the Développement Chorégraphique Center, Toulouse with choreographers Tomas Aragay, Olga Mesa, Cesc Gelabert, Sam Louwick, and Heddy Maalem; She has also been a member of dance companies such as Senza Tempo and visual theatre companies such as Comediants.
She has also worked extensively as a teacher in Performing Arts, at universities, drama schools and international exchanges such as Rose Bruford College (UK), Institut del Teatre de Barcelona (ES), Prima del Teatro, Fondazione Teatro di Pisa, (IT), and Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts (DK), offering classes and workshops centred around finding new forms of dramaturgy, as well as offering performance tools in acting and movement. She understands teaching as a space in which to pursue lines of creative investigation, and considers it an honour to contribute to future generations of artists’ training.
Theatres, residences and institutions
CAT
National Theatre of Catalonia
Barcelona Grec Festival
Temporada Alta Festival
Teatre Lliure
La Perla 29
Sala Beckett
Terrassa Noves Tendencies Festival, (TNT)
Festival Internacional de Teatre Visual i Titelles
Festival Noves Escenas Obertes, (NEO)
Cos Festival, Reus
L’animal a l’esquena, Celrà
French Institute Barcelona
Hangar
La Brutal
Eteri productions
Graner Creation Factories
Estruch Creation Factories
Can Massó Art Center, Reus
Institut del Teatre de Barcelona
Eòlia Escola Superior d’Art Dramàtic
Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries, Generalitat of Catalunya
Ramon Llull Institute
ICIC Indústries Culturals Catalanes
FR
Montbéliard National Scene
TJP National Dramatic Center Strasbourg
Aerowaves Spring Forward 2019
Gymnase Theatre, Paris
Théâtre des 13 vents National Dramatic Center Montpellier
Festival Les Nuits Euphoriques, Tournefeuille
National Dramatic Comedy Center of Reims
Peripheral space - La Villette Paris
MIRA Festival!
Mecanika I Paulo Duarte Co, Montpellier
Rubén Molina Co, Paris
La Zampa Co, Toulouse
Pseudonym Co, Reims
Paris Flamenco Institute
Croisées scenes from Lozère, Mende
City of Tournefeuille
City of montpellier
ORCCA Reims
2019 – 2018 – International Development Practical Research Scholarship with the company Peeping Tom, with Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, Brussels (BE). SGAE General Society of Authors of Spain.
2018 – 2016 Advanced Performing Arts Improvement Scholarship, new creative thinking. A bursary for MA Performance Making studies, Goldsmiths University of London. Generalitat of Catalunya.
2014 Research new creative thinking Scholarship in Performing Arts, for World of Wolves devising period. Generalitat of Catalunya.
2010 Research new creative thinking scholarship in Performing Arts, for Claim Your Place I+E devising period. Generalitat of Catalunya.
2009 La Cena, Nominated for Best Show, at the Butaca de Teatre i Cinema de Catalunya Awards.
2008 La Cena, Winner of Best Projects at the Premis d’Escenificación del Institut del Teatre de Barcelona.
2002 – 2001 Scholarship for advanced improvement in Performing Arts, new creative thinking, for internship with Théâtre du Mouvement, Yves Marc and Claire Heggen, Paris (FR). Generalitat of Catalunya.
2001 Scholarship Stage International de Jeunes comédiens, with François Roy. Tàrrega Festival and Avignon Festival OFF, France.
2000-1997 Scholarship for extension of Artistic Studies. A bursary to study Dramatic Art at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona. Government of Navarra.
2019 – 2018 Contemporary theatrical devising from a physical approach in the development of one’s own creative practice, with Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chantier, Peeping Tom company, Brussels. Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Royal Flemish Theater in Brussels.
2018 Theoretical-practical theatrical research project: Sport by Nuria Legarda, Goldsmiths University of London.
2017 Research laboratory by Nuria Legarda. Grec Festival, Graner Creation centre Dance and Performing Arts, Barcelona.
2014 Research period for the devising piece: World of Wolves. Generalitat de Catalunya.
2012 Theatre research workshop with Andrés Lima. Matadero Madrid. Guest choreographer.
2012 – 2010 Euroregion cultural project, co-directed by La Zampa, Nuria Legarda. Moebius Collective. With the support of Euroregion Pyrenees Mediterranean, Toulouse CDC, Nuits Euphoriques Tournefeuille Festival, l’Estruch de Sabadell, Barcelona. La Caldera Barcelona, Théâtre des 13 Vents CDN Languedoc-Roussillon Montpellier, ADDA Scènes Croisées Mende.
2010 Research period for the devising piece: Claim Your Place. Generalitat de Catalunya.
2007 Research laboratory by La zampa, Micadanse, Paris. Guest performer.
Originally from Pamplona (ES) where, at an early age, she obtained the Intermediate Professional Degree in Cello from the Pablo Sarasate Professional Conservatory, and studied Classical and Contemporary Dance at the Dance School of the Government of Navarra. She graduated in Musical Education from the University of La Rioja, and obtained a scholarship for artistic excellence to study a Bachelor’s Degree in Dramatic Art at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, studies that ends with his devising work: Allá voy! with honours. Having recently graduated, she received a scholarship from the Generalitat of Catalonia to complete a year’s internship with Théâtre du Mouvement (FR), directed by Yves Marc and Claire Heggen, (2001-2002 Paris) with whom she expanded her theatrical understanding and the breadth of her performance skills in physical and visual theatre. She began to work as a performer with the Comediants company and very soon he would begin directing her own theatrical pieces, as well as collaborating with stage directors, contributing from her vision of the body and movement. After fifteen years of working as a performer, choreographer, director and teacher, she obtained a full scholarship from the Generalitat of Catalonia to study a master’s degree in Performance Making at the Goldsmith University of London (2016-2018), where she scored a distinction for her final piece Sport; a performance which she conceptualised, directed and acted in, described as: ‘a sublime articulation of her movement skills and her very individual sense of scenography’. Graeme Miller, interdisciplinary artist and composer, London.
«Nuria Legarda has the necessary knowledge, talent, intelligence and courage as a director and performer, to crystallise the qualities of emotion, truth and beauty in her theatre.»
«Nuria Legarda stages ideas, images, compositions, and concepts using any discipline necessary to create a conceptual and visceral world. She establishes a strong complicity with the audience, and guarantees a captivating experience.»
«She is considered one of the most unrelentingly driven artists, and consequently, one of the most unclassifiable in the Catalan panorama.»
«Nuria’s work is bold, authentic and distinctive. Back of the brain, and mesmerising.»
Press
About Nuria Legarda
About productions
ON ‘DARK BEAUTY’
Dark Beauty is a great example of how the artist uses photography to fix the system of symbols of any work. The spaces in which the action takes place constantly refer to abandoned aged places, architectures destroyed or half done, absolutely devastated spaces where the only thing that still persists is the protagonist’s body (also abandoned and mistreated). The protagonist is an anonymous woman, an individual who personifies the idea of the search for female perfection, while only knowing how to exist from a relationship of domination, of absolute subjugation and total abandon
– by Greta I. Galeana
ON ‘CLAIM YOUR PLACE I+P’
«A small format show that talks about the wars of the 20th century and that owes much of its strength to the audiovisual that is projected as well as to the conception of the space in which it is developed.»
– by EL PUNT AVUI
«Nuria Legarda premieres a piece on the violence of war at BAD in Bilbao.»
– by ELCORREO.COM
«The monster we carry inside.»
– by ELCORREO.TV
A creative bomb of dance and theatre
«A video and performance installation that reflects on the vacuum that follows violence. It is Claim your place, by Nuria Legarda (Masia Freixa. 18.00 to 21.00).»
– by EL PERIÓDICO
«Legarda’s affected image is confused with the pain transmitted by the images. A strength that contrasts with the devastation. A committed and straight forward piece.»
– by Jordi Rico, actor
«Nuria Legarda offers the viewer the opportunity to pass through a space open to meditation. The labyrinth, the installation, becomes a place of human searching (with the theme of 20th century wars as a reference) but which she does paradoxically from a visual work based on textures, colour, light, and video screening, not at all aggressive but based on an invitation to the placid observation of someone walking through a forest, surrounded by sounds and sensations that we would find in nature. Later, the intervention of Legarda’s performance is completely honest and appeals to the feeling of anger and impotence through the fragility and strength of the performer’s naked body. The repetitive and obsessive movement of the dancer-actress, her frenzied soldier-army march, is a good exercise in conciseness through gesture. An image that remains on the retina: the woman wrapped in the material we previously walked through, broken, with her head vanished, the beauty of the body contrasted with the military boots, in the middle of the degraded environment. An intense work, at once delicate and daring.»
– by Ricard Gázquez, playwright and stage director, Barcelona
ON ‘LA CENA’
Dinner at La Beckett
«The actress and dancer stars in La cena, a piece about a dinner among friends full of bitterness and frustration.»– by EL METRO
Last dinner
«The table is laid. Five friends get back together, after three years, for dinner. They talk about trivia, but deep down…»
– by TIME OFF
La cena
«“The Sala Beckett premieres La cena, a multidisciplinary piece with dramaturgy by Carles Mallol and Nuria Legarda…»
– by LA VANGUARDIA
«…that a relatively young actress like Nuria Legarda does not limit herself to more or less comfortable forms of performance and has the passion for research and experimentation in contemporary theatre with a cross-over view. This is why it is so praiseworthy that La cena is a sensitive, intelligent, visually delicious and technically impeccable piece…»
– by DIARI DE GIRONA, Jordi Sala, 26-10-08
«…the research consists of the combination of different narrative languages (dramatic text, dance, minimalist movement, pre-recorded image), fruit of the conviction that any story has to seek out and find its own means of expression, and that they become clear as the narration advances. A brilliant concept endorsed by the technical expertise of the performers…»
– by DIARI DE GIRONA, Jordi Sala, 26-10-08
«Laying or clearing the table prompts a studied choreography of oriental inspiration, while the visual aspect is resolved as an installation where the arrangement of the subjects in innovative chromatic and spatial associations gives the show a dimension full of humour and freshness (…) There is a constant stylization of violence and a stylization of perversity… the text is full of silences and vacuums of information and places us at the same level as the audiovisual image… and as the pictorial composition obtained with light and objects…»
– by EL PUNT AVUI, Francesc Massip, 20-11-08
«…La cena is an exquisite combination of theatre and dance. The sharpness of the dance and the strength of the dramaturgy create a setting full of tension that seems to challenge the audience who are incapable of being indifferent to it. I’m amazed by the capacity of the director, Nuria Legarda, to shed light on the fragile feelings of the characters through movement and dance (something extremely subjective) and that the audience can grasp at all times the essence of this Dinner (or anti dinner, as Legarda herself would say). The work is an internalisation of each one of the characters, which implies subjugation to their incoherencies, their irrationalities, their fears… But do not be afraid, because it is impossible to get lost in this show.»
– by El Blog de las Odiseas, Manel Haro, 17-11-08
«… Pieces like this make everyone feel a genuine passion for theatre and dance. God bless the whole team that has worked on La cena.»
– by El Blog de las Odiseas, Manel Haro, 17-11-08
SOBRE ‘ÉCUMES’
«… Écumes, by Paulo Duarte and Nuria Legarda, is a captivating work. Simply magnetic, enchanting.»
– por Francesc Massip
Published in OMNI Magazine
Press kit
Web design: Ariadna Cabré and Nuria Legarda
Photographies: Felipe Mena
Remaining photos: Pep Dauré, Michael O’Relly, Joanna Walton, India Gillett, Ludovic Descognets, Tom Elkins, Paulo Duarte, Isabelle Duverger, Yann Marquis, Loran Chourrau.