Aida Rodríguez
- Fellow 2025
- artist, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and activist based in Caracas, Venezuela
- cooperating partner: Miguel Alejandro Castillo (New York City, USA)
Aida Rodríguez (Tata) is an artist, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and activist. Born in 1932 in Cunaviche, Venezuela, she became a dancer at the age of 88. For her, dance is a way to express emotion and connect with the environment around her. Through authentic movement and contact improvisation, she loses all sense of time, merging past, present and future into a single living moment. If she can dance, anything is possible.
During this fellowship she will collaborate with her grandson Miguel Alejandro Castillo – a dancer and choreographer – exploring authentic movement, contact improvisation, writing, and prayer. This opportunity will allow Aida to deepen her understanding of aging, impermanence, and the cycles of life. She seeks to study the language of nature through her body, seeking a deeper connection to the rhythms of the earth, the wisdom of the trees, and the quiet inevitable passage of time.
"We were happily reminded of the fact that dance is not an elite practice reserved to a certain type of body, or to a certain age bracket - Aida’s application was one of the most refreshing fellowship applications. Daring, dreaming and rooted in a real purpose of what dance is and why we must dance. A gentle reminder of other daring dance projects, including notably Pina Bausch’s legacy in productions such as 'Kontakthof', and its upcoming remake 'Kontakthof - Echoes of ‘78', with elder bodies taking centerstage. Dance is this mystical human phenomenon that we do when we are old, we do when we are young, and we do when we are first born and instinctively, responding to rhythm and movement.
- From the Jury Statement