Ana Kamien

Born in Buenos Aires in 1935, Ana Kamien is an Argentine dancer, choreographer, and actor. She studied classical ballet with Roberto Giachero and Gloria Kazda and contemporary dance with María Fux and Renate Schottelius, among other important Argentine masters. Kamien studied in England with Arlene Phillips and Daniel Press and in the United States with Eric Hawkins. The performances she choreographed in the 1960s expressed an avant-garde conception of movement and theater. She was part of the group of artists who gathered in Buenos Aires and presented at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, which promoted radical and experimental art in all its forms. It was under the auspices of the progressive Di Tella Institute that Kamien and fellow dancer and choreographer Marilú Marini (b. 1945) created the psychedelic Danse Bouquet (1967). Three years later, in 1970, Kamien produced, alongside the filmmaker Marcelo Epstein, the 16mm dance film Ana Kamien. The art historian and critic Rodrigo Alonso has described this work as "not only one of the first examples of dance for the camera in Argentina: it is also one of the best."^# In this work the movement of the body and that of the camera were thought of as complementary.

Parallel to her career as a performer and creator, Kamien has dedicated her life to the pedagogy of dance. Since 1962 she has taught choreography, improvisation, and movement. In 1969 she opened her first dance studio, followed by a second one in 1979. Kamien has performed internationally, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and King's Head Theatre in London, Melkweg and Vondelpark theaters in Amsterdam, and Waagtheater in Delft, Netherlands. Kamien participated in the 4th Festival of Contemporary Dance in Bonn, Germany, and at the Vrouwen Festival in Amsterdam. Between 2001 and 2003 she was president of CoCoA-Datei (Coreógrafos Contemporáneos Asociados-Danza Teatro Independiente), a national organization that brings together experimental dancers and choreographers from Argentina. Kamien lives in Buenos Aires, where she continues to inspire younger dancers.

—Marcela Guerrero