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"To dance is to hear our heart speak"- hopi proverb
We were as struck by Aurora’s project, which worked toward a cause dear to our hearts in a language we had never heard before.
- The Huffington Post
Aurora Bison Lagattuta (she/her) is an interdisciplinary performer and choreographer whose work has been presented across the U.S.A., Europe, Asia and New Zealand. The Huffington Post describes her work as "otherworldly and transformational" as well as "bizarre and beautiful." She is known for creating mystical and poetic community-inclusive performances that engage with dance as a means for personal transformation.
She is the founder and director of Healing Dances, which shares embodied practices that empower all types of movers to deepen their relationships with their bodies, communities and their local environments. She currently resides in Omaha, NE.
Lagattuta has created performances, installations and community engagements in theaters, galleries and site-specifically. Some of the venues her work has been presented at include: Theatre Row on Broadway and Movement Research in New York City, Electric Lodge and Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles, Cindy Pritzker and the Chicago Public Library in Chicago, k77 in Berlin, The New Space in Brussels, La Caldera in Barcelona, Café de las Artes in Santander, Spain and by Malashock’s Engagement Ring, Vanguard Culture and the Mingei Museum, La Jolla Gallery and La Jolla Institute of Oceanography in San Diego. She has been awarded residencies at Bali Purnati in Bali, Indonesia; Palacio de Festivales and Forn de La Calc in Spain, Shiro Oni in Onishi, Japan and at New Zealand Pacific Studios in New Zealand.
She has danced for various companies and noteworthy choreographers in New York City, Portland, Germany, and Spain. She holds an M.F.A. in Contemporary Dance Making and Performance from the University of California San Diego (2019) and a B.A. in Theatre Directing from Fordham University at Lincoln Center, New York City (2008).
Her solo, Inside the Whale, toured throughout Europe, Chicago, Los Angeles and at the United Solo Festival on Broadway in NYC, where she was awarded, The Best Multi-Media Solo Award and the United Solo Award. The United Solo Award hosted Lagattuta’s solo performance at the United Solo Europe Festival in Warsaw, Poland.
She is an Academy Member for United Solo, NYC, a member of the New Space Collective in Belgium, and an associate member of ISMETA somatic practitioners. Lagattuta has over 17 years of teaching experience in contemporary dance and yoga. She has taught beginners to physically and mentally uniquely-abled young adults to university students to elders. She also has completed Stanford's Cultivate Compassion Training (CCT). She is a 500-Hour Registered Yoga Teacher, Yin Yoga Certified and Marma (Ayurveda Acupressure) Point Therapy Certified. She is currently pursuing a M.S. in Clinical Mental Health (2026) at the University of Nebraska Omaha in hopes to practice somatic therapy in a variety of settings.
"Lagattuta is an artist who provides a wild yet sacred space for both audience and performer to practice inclusivity."
-San Diego Voyager
Artistic Statement
I understand dance as an ancient and innate source of embodied wisdom. It is available to all bodies regardless of ability, age, and background. I prioritize accessible, community-inclusive and somatic-based practices. Through the use of movement and poetry in various forms—improvisation, performance, installation and inclusive happenings—my work probes into the ideas of identity, belonging and dis/location, and social responsibility.
My perspective that dance is a restorative way of being has been molded by varied dance trainings, experiences and travels. I studied Balinese dance in Ubud, Indonesia, Butoh in Japan and traditional contemporary dance and theater education in the United States. I also had the opportunity to work with various artist healers and shamanic practitioners in the US, Hawaii and New Zealand. Namely my aunt, Deborah, a dancer and healer, has greatly influenced my perspective on the intersectionality between the creative arts and healing. My years of teaching dance and yoga have also demonstrated to me first hand how the body stores memories, emotions and trauma. These experiences have impacted my understanding of dance as a means to uniquely release, process and integrate experiences for one’s overall well being.
I see performance as a means to transform and enrich our relationships with our bodies, communities and environments through the practice of inclusivity. I believe that when time and space are taken to be with things, they positively respond and reinforce the connectivity within people and places. My work invites audiences to engage with dance in non-traditional and experiential modalities. Often working site-specifically with maps, guides, and audios, the audience has permission to roam and experiment in subtle, curious, durational and self-selected ways.
I am curious about how movement is a practice of 'being with'.... How can I be with myself? And all my conflicting parts? ...my mixed feelings, my mixed heritage, my mixed up past, future, present?
Dance is a presence already within all bodies. It is an embodied practice of ‘being with’ oneself. Dance is the language of our hearts. The language of our hearts is a language of expansion, connection, power and love. I am passionate about sharing dances, performances and tools that empower dancers to unearth the intuitive expression and innate power that their body naturally holds.
My greatest aim is to empower all bodies to share their dance as a means for personal, communal and environmental transformation. The spark that keeps sustaining my dancing is a deep passion for nurturing the relationships that I am woven within.
"To watch dance is to hear is to hear our heart speak."
-Hopi Proverb
Let's Connect.
Omaha, NE USA info@auroradances.org
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