Cuando Las Memorias Sangran

When Memories Bleed

MFA Thesis in Dance by Zoia Cisneros 

Performances:

February 13th - 15th, 2025 

February 13-14, 7:30 + 8:30p*

February 15, 2:30, 3:30, 7:30 + 8:30p*

*Each performance is 30 minutes in length 

$5; Advanced Ticket purchase required; limited seating available

 Tickets must be purchased in advance here

More About When Memories Bleed

Cuando Las Memorias Sangran ~ When Memories Bleed is an immersive dance installation that explores migration stories through dance, storytelling, and letter writing. It examines how we connect with distant loved ones and creatively interact with our past, present, and future.

Collaborating Dancers: Cori Cooper, Iyona King, Shelby Harrison, Sarah Pilkington, Zariah Rudolph, Ethan Schwab, Leon Scott, Savion Spruill, Natalie Weston and Audrey Weston

Collaborating Lighting Designer: Desmond Wiley

Collaborating Mixed Media Artist: Sarah Pilkington

Photographer: Brandon Demery

More About Zoia Cisneros 

Zoia Cisneros, daughter of an Afro-Venezuelan father and Jewish-American mother, explores connections between Latin and African diasporas as a choreographer. She is a mother of three and a registered nurse, currently developing her skills as a dance scholar, choreographer and pedagogue as an MFA Candidate in Dance (Choreography) and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the School of Dance at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Born and raised in the barrios of the west side of Caracas, Venezuela, Zoia started dancing at a young age with family and while accompanying her mother teaching creative dance on roof tops. At age six, she began her studio dance career studying Jazz and later traditional Venezuelan dances, Flamenco and Ballet with Yolanda Moreno’s Danzas Venezuela. After immigrating in 1993 to Southern Maine, she widened her vocabulary in Jazz, Hip Hop, Belly Dance, West African, Afro-Cuban, Capoeira and Modern dance. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and French from Bates College, where her dance training was enriched by the environment of the Bates Dance Festival. Zoia has received research awards to conduct field studies in Venezuela, Trinidad, Martinique, The Gambia, Senegal and Australia. For five years, Zoia was a principal dancer with Philadelphia based Tania Isaac Dance (Contemporary Caribbean) and Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble under the direction of Dorothy Wilkie. For two years, she taught creative dance to middle school students and choreographed work featured on national T.V. at the Annual Youth Arts Festival in Belize, Central America. In North Carolina, Zoia trained and performed with the Cobo Brothers Dance Company for three years focusing on Social Latin Dance and collaborated with contemporary dance choreographers Anjanee Bell, Leah Wilks, Nicola Bullock, Nicole Dagesse and Gaspard Louis. Before joining the MFA program, Zoia trained and traveled to Brazil to perform as a passista (samba dancer) in Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome with Escolas de Samba Acadêmicos do Cubango and Unidos de Bangu for Carnaval 2022.