Virginia Segarra Vidal is a freelance dance artist and choreographer. Her creative work explores the dialogue between movement, visual arts and audiovisual communication. She is also interested in the analogue medium of photography and has made film works for the screen.
Most recently, she has danced as a soloist with 'Ballett am Rhein' (from 2011 to 2023), where she began her choreographic research in 2018. Her work has been shown at the Theatre Duisburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Lehmbruck Museum and the tanzhaus nrw. In her choreographies she reflects on the relationship between architecture, sculpture and the human body in motion.
Born in Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Lives & works in Düsseldorf, Germany
Virginia took her first ballet lessons with Lupe Castelló Bertomeu in Benicarló, near her home town of Alcalà de Xivert in the Mediterranean region of Valencia. After graduating from high school, she moved to Barcelona, where she continued her dance training at the 'Institut del Teatre' and also studied audiovisual communication at the 'Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona'. Her teachers at the 'Institut del Teatre' included Catherine Allard, Ion Beitia, Joan Boix, Rodolfo Castellanos, Guillermina Coll, Mauro Galindo, Ion Garnika, Mathilde van der Meerendonk, Marta Munsó and María Muñoz, among others. During her studies, she received scholarships from the 'Fundación de la Danza Alicia Alonso' in Madrid and the 'Ballet des Jeunes d'Europe' in France.
She completed her training at the 'Estudio de Danza María de Ávila', and received her first professional engagement at the 'Ballet de Zaragoza' in 2003. She went on to perform with various dance companies and theatres in the UK ('English National Ballet' and 'European Ballet' in London), France ('Ballet de l'Opéra-Théâtre' in Limoges) and Germany ('Ballett Vorpommern' in Greifswald) before joining 'Ballett am Rhein' under the direction of Martin Schläpfer in 2011.
During her twenty-year career, she has danced an extensive repertoire of classical, modern and contemporary dance works by choreographers such as Martin Schläpfer, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, Kurt Jooss, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Hans van Manen, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Nils Christe, Amanda Miller, Terence Kohler, Antoine Jully, Natalia Horecna, Ben J. Riepe, Gil Harush, Bridget Breiner, Demis Volpi, Ralf Dörnen, Maya M. Carroll and Patrick de Bana, among others.
In 2018, Virginia presented her first choreography for 'Ballett am Rhein'. Created in collaboration with the artist Christian Odzuck, 'Posidonia' marked the beginning of her exploration of dance and architecture. She choreographed 'Prometheus dis.order', her first full-length work, which was performed at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf in 2021. This multimedia production by Nick and Clemens Prokop (TYE Shows) was created as part of the celebrations of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday with the 'Düsseldorfer Symphoniker' conducted by Alexandre Bloch. In 2022 her short piece 'Lustra' was shown at the tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf during the evening 'Step by Step'.
Her latest work 'Parallel Bodies' explores the relationship between architecture, its proportions and geometry, and the human body in motion. The piece is a study of the specific formal language of a building as well as its narrative aspects. It was originally created for the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg and premiered at the finissage of the exhibition 'Gormley / Lehmbruck: Calling on the Body' in February 2023. She staged a new version of 'Parallel Bodies' for the 'Shortcuts' evening of the 'Ballett am Rhein' (March 2023), where the dancers performed amongst the audience in the foyer and the public spaces of the Duisburg Theatre.
Virginia has recently collaborated with the choreographic duo HARTMANNMUELLER. Together they created 'Let*s dance', which was shown at the tanzhaus nrw in June 2023.
She has also made short films: 'Quartett', selected for the 1st International Screendance Festival Freiburg 2019 and 'Oculi' (in collaboration with the choreographer Wun Sze Chan) as part of the festival tanz nrw 21 in Düsseldorf in 2021.
Image © Evgeny Ganeev