Niurca Marquez

Bio

Niurca Marquez (she/ella) is a movement artist/researcher and author. As a trained somatic educator, she uses her body-centered work to provide service to communities undergoing processes of healing and self-realization. A Latinx artist and activist on the margins advocating for silenced voices, she is particularly interested in notions of identity, cultural memory, ritual and the body within a contemporary framework, as well as the multiple layers of communication and understanding in movement practices that lead to liaisons with political and social discourse. Niurca is the recipient of numerous awards for both her artistic creations and her research, and has various publications on contemporary flamenco, dance sustainability and identity politics in movement practices. Her current research includes an examination of the use of collage (and its affiliated approaches) as a methodology for composition when working in hybrid forms to explore how we can evidence the process in performance on various platforms, as well as transculturality, hybridity and mestisaje as they pertain to expressions of identity and the moving body. She is committed to teaching initiatives that center equity, diversity and inclusion, as well as global awareness and engagement in various modalities. She is a COIL Faculty Fellow and has a shared appointment in the Honors College and the Department of Religious Studies.