DIRECTORa & coreógrafa

INSÉKTA is a Venezuelan/Peruvian director, choreographer, and performer based in Chicago, IL. With a background shaped by migration and cultural multiplicity, they embrace a hyper-hyphenated identity that informs both their life and art-making.

Their body of work spans immersive dance-theater, interdisciplinary performance, film, and socially engaged practices. INSÉKTA is the co-founder and co-host of FLÁ Podcast (@fla.podcast), an audiovisual series exploring Latin American futurism across artistic, philosophical, and emotional dimensions.

They are the creator of MATADORA, a modular dance-theater myth addressing Latiné rage and transformation; DEMBOW, a rhythm-driven pop-up class and ritual rooted in Latin American social dances; Sábanas, a dance film exploring sensuality, confinement, and embodiment; and iORGAN, an audiovisual performance unpacking the divide between body and constructed self.

INSÉKTA’s work has been featured at SPACES Gallery (Cleveland), Blow Up Film Festival (Chicago), Experimental Forum (NYC), and the Festival de Artes Escénicas (FAE) in Lima, Peru. They are a recipient of the Albert P. Weisman Award, and have worked with institutions such as Teatro La Plaza (Peru) and the Dance/USA Conference.

I create to rupture silence. To give form to what’s been repressed in the body, in culture, in memory.

As INSÉKTA, I work across choreography, direction, and performance to build immersive, emotionally charged worlds that confront the fragmentation of identity and the weight of suppressed Latiné experiences. My work is driven by the belief that movement holds the truths we don’t know how to name—and that through rhythm, repetition, and ritual, we can reclaim parts of ourselves that have been hidden, distorted, or erased.

My practice lives at the intersections of Latin American futurism, mythology, body horror, and sensuality. I pull from lived migration, digital saturation, ancestral memory, and emotional inheritance to create spaces where fragmented selves are not just seen—they are expanded. I do not replicate Latin traditions. I remix them to reveal new timelines, new fictions, and new ways of being.

Works like MATADORA, DEMBOW, and Sábanas investigate how we express rage, desire, dissociation, and connection through the body—especially in systems that teach us to hold back. These are not just performances. They are sensorial environments where dance becomes a language of exorcism, protest, and imagination.

I believe in the hyper-hyphenated self—in identities that don’t ask for permission to shift shape. My work builds from that belief. It doesn’t ask to be understood. It asks to be felt.

Grants

• Inaugural cohort of Dance Project Grants 2026 by Chicago Dancemakers Forum.

• Inaugural cohort of New Dances / New Horizons, a program by Thodos Dance Chicago, 2026.

Festivals

• MADE IN CHICAGO - International Physical Theater Festival 2026.

• SCRATCH NIGHT - Destinos Edition, 2025 by The Physical Theater Festival and CLATA.

Awards & Honors

• Finalist, Sábanas – Festival de Artes Escénicas (FAE), Lima, Peru, 2021.

• Honorable Mention, iORGAN – Experimental Forum, New York City, 2020.

• Official Selection, iORGAN – Blow Up Film Festival, Chicago, 2020.

• Albert P. Weisman Award – Columbia College Chicago, 2018.

Exhibitions & Screenings

• Sábanas – SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, OH, 2021.

• iORGAN – Experimental Forum, NYC, 2020

• iORGAN – Blow Up Film Festival, Chicago, IL, 2020.

Institutional Collaborations

• Synapse Arts – Co-Director of Live Works Division s & Marketing (2024-present).

• Illinois Humanities - Presenter for DOING HISTORY: A People’s Salon (2026).

• Dance/USA Conference – Artist and presenter of DEMBOW RELOADED (2025).

• Teatro La Plaza – Director & Choreographer of FRONDOSO, Lima, Perú (2019-2020).

• ZINFORMA – Founder, Director & Choreographer of iORGAN in Chicago, IL (2017-2019).

• “Closure of prominent dance venue spurs effort to uplift Chicago dancemakers“ by Courtney Kueppers in WBEZ Chicago (Apr 2, 2026).