performer, educator, radical collaborator
Erica Saucedo is a choreographer, performer, educator and arts administrator. Utilizing dance theater, Erica prioritizes genuine emotions over rational implications of systems of ‘seriousness’ in order to craft both spectacular and intimate vantage points from the powers and systems that be. Dedicated to building community through dance, Erica is enlivened by pursuing collaborative arts-based projects that prioritize brave inquiry, emotional intellect and anti-racist organizing.
Photograph by Charles R Berenguer Jr
Erica an M.F.A. Candidate in Dance and Social Justice in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. Her primary research investigates the re-embodiment of cultural icons (mainstream and marginalized) in order to research ways of interrogating and reframing static notions of gender, race, sexuality and physical ability embedded in Latinx iconicity, stereotypes, and popular music.
In April of 2021, Erica will premiere an evening-length work titled, H.Exotic: Latina Dancing Bodies in America or HELDbiAmerica at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center (ESBMACC). HELDbiAmerica is a performance ritual featuring the H.Exotic (hous ig’zädik), a shape-shifting dancing avatar that comes to life as the incarnation of a revolving rolodex of superstar U.S. Latina pop-culture icons in order to critique their creators and destroy their mythical prisons.
Additionally, Erica collaborates on project-based work with Austin artists connected by Xicana Feminist theory and a dream of interrogating and healing from ancestral trauma. One of thirteen multidisciplinary artists in the Frank Wo/Men Collective, Erica choreographs and performs in experimental physical theatre that centers LGBTQ and non-binary individuals, ranging from 20-50+ years of age. Erica also works in extensive collaboration with New York City-based artists Angela’s Pulse, Johnnie Cruise Mercer/The RED project, and Indah Walsh Dance Company.
Erica's choreographic commissions include works for Mini Movement Festival (Dallas, TX), First Street Studio (Austin, TX), 92Y Street Festival (New York, NY), Danspace Project (New York, NY), Triskelion Arts (New York, NY), Austin Dance Festival (Austin, TX), and the Actors Fund Center (New York, NY). Saucedo is a 2019 ARCOS Dance Artist Development Award grantee and a 2019-2021 resident artist in the Latino Artist Access Program (L.A.A.P.) at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center.
Erica is the co-producer of Geografía, a contemporary dance festival celebrating the diverse perspectives and experiences of Latinx dance makers in Texas, and beyond. The festival features post-show discussions centered around where Latinx identity and dance intersect, as self-determined by each artist. The next iteration of Geografía will take place at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center in June of 2020.
Erica has over five years of experience in arts administration. Among her various roles, Erica was the project manager for Building a Better Fishtrap/from the river’s mouth, where she successfully managed the site-specific dance project along a .5-mile stretch of the Bronx River. As an arts facilitator, Erica has facilitated movement workshops for young and senior learners in an effort to bring the power of art to communities in New York City, Austin, and Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Erica lives in her hometown of Austin, Texas where her movement training began dancing to cumbias, mereges, bachata music and country music in her living room. An alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin, Erica has an extensive background in various styles of contemporary dance, ballet, and postmodern movement.