"Living in nepantla, I find myself challenged to negotiate the cracks between worlds, spaces between the different allegiances and affinities and contradictions that make up my multiple subjectivities—a liminal space where I feel the pull of different worlds, where I create a new self from the remnants of the old. Nepantla is the space of transformation, the threshold between the old and the new, between what has been left behind and what has yet to come. It is a space of discomfort but also of possibility. From this space, new ways of being emerge. It is in this state of constant transition, of not quite belonging to any single place, that I find my strength, because I learn to be at ease in the in-between. Nepantla allows me to see through multiple lenses, to recognize that movement itself is a form of survival, that adaptation is not about losing the past but about shaping the future."— Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
BIOGRAPHY
Originally from Victoria, Texas, Katelyn Perez is a performer, choreographer, and researcher pursuing an MFA in Dance at the University of Iowa. She holds a BFA from Sam Houston State University. Her work explores the body as a site of adaptation, negotiating the complexities of identity, isolation, and cultural hybridity. Grounded in autoethnography, she investigates how movement embodies the experience of existing between spaces geographically, culturally, and socially while interrogating the physical and visible impacts of being a lone body within a majority. Her research engages polyattentiveness, bodily archives, and choreographic structures that reflect the necessity of adaptation within ever-shifting sociopolitical landscapes.
As a performer, she has worked with choreographers such as Danielle Russo, Zena Bibler, Stephanie Miracle, Melinda Myers, and Joshua Manculich. She served as rehearsal director for the University of Iowa Dance Department’s restaging of Panorama, originally choreographed by Martha Graham. Under the guidance of Graham 2 Director Virginie Mécène, she restaged the work on over 30 UIowa dancers, ensuring the preservation of Graham’s legacy while supporting the development of emerging performers. Additionally, she conducted a research project for UI Dance Company members, using storytelling, reflective movement prompts, and archival research to explore students' encounters with Martha Graham’s work through an embodied process. The project culminated in a short lecture-demonstration style piece, performed in February 2024.
Her choreographic work has been recognized nationally, with her piece ceaseless nominated for the 2021 South-Central ACDA Conference. She was selected to teach two masterclasses at the 2023 North-Central ACDA Conference and was awarded a fully funded residency at the National Choreography Intensive, where she created and set work on students over the course of two weeks. At the University of Iowa, she has also served as a dramaturg and rehearsal assistant for Danielle Russo’s third floor up, second door on the right with the double-pane, south-facing window, supporting the work’s conceptual and physical development while continuing to investigate movement as a means of survival, transformation, and resistance.
Recently, she is a member of the danceLAB collective, an initiative led by Brenda Tally and Michael Landez (LandezArts) that fosters community among dance makers and movers seeking opportunities to create new, original work. Rooted in experimentation, justice, and technical dynamism, danceLAB is committed to socially informed dance-making through rigorous artistic inquiry. As a performer and collaborator within the collective, Katelyn contributed to the development of contemporary works alongside other emerging artists, engaging in a process-driven environment that prioritized intellectual and physical exploration.
