A Choreography on Antin

With: Léa Tirabasso, Catarina Barbosa (TBC)

Framework: Eleanor Antin. A retrospective

Access: Included in the admission price.

Booking: No booking required

What does it mean to interpret an artwork through the body, the senses, the spirit?

For this performance, choreographer Léa Tirabasso and dancer Catarina Barbosa are drawing on Eleanor Antin’s work through narration and movement, offering a renewed perspective on it.

As Antin developed a series of alter egos and fictional characters to articulate her positions on the social and political concerns that shaped her practice, this activation proposes a choreographic reading of her work through the prism of contemporary dance. The performer engages with several of these figures, embodying and reinterpreting them live on the second last Sunday of the exhibition.

Central to this activation is the figure of the ballerina – a motif that recurs throughout Antin’s life and oeuvre. Taking form through movement, this character is revisited in a way that echoes both Antin’s reflections on the constraints of grace and femininity and the impossibility of the ideal she critically examined.

In this live interpretation, the ballerina gradually comes into being, inviting the audience to rediscover one of Antin’s most emblematic figures through a fresh and vivid presence.

Biographies: 

Léa Tirabasso is an award-winning dancer and choreographer from eastern France, with Italian roots. Her work probes the body as a site of instinct, tension and transformation, drawing on her background in Art History and Modern Literature, as well as her training at London Contemporary Dance School. She also holds a Master of Arts in Professional Practice from Middlesex University. As a performer, Tirabasso has collaborated with a wide range of international artists and companies, including José Vidal, Clod Ensemble, Seke Chimutengwende, Bernard Baumgarten, Omar Rajeh and Nicole Seiler. From 2011 to 2013, she was a full-time member of Staatstheater Kassel, performing in works by Johannes Wieland, Stephanie Thiersch, Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Fruček, Michael Langeneckert and Chris Haring. Her independent creations – love me tender, TOYS, The Ephemeral Life of an Octopus, Starving Dingoes and In the Bushes – have toured widely across Europe and internationally, appearing at Tanzmesse Düsseldorf, Avignon’s CDCN Les Hivernales, the Seoul International Dance Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2023, she created The Kingdom for Tanzmainz. Tirabasso’s work is regularly supported by TROIS C-L and Luxembourg’s Ministry of Culture. Beyond choreography, Léa works as a dramaturg and mentor on a variety of international choreographic projects, offering artistic guidance, conceptual development, and embodied research insights. She teaches nationally and internationally, is a guest speaker at University College London, and serves as an ambassador for The Eve Appeal, a UK charity dedicated to gynaecological health.

Catarina Barbosa is a Portuguese choreographer and performer from Póvoa de Varzim, based in Luxembourg. Her work navigates the tension between vulnerability and strength, engaging with themes of identity, feminism, female pleasure, sorority and sensuality. As co-founder of AWA – As We Are, together with Baptiste Hilbert, she creates raw and visceral performances that foreground resilience, empowerment and embodied self-expression. Trained at the Portuguese National Conservatory and later at Ballet Junior de Genève, she worked on creations by Stijn Celis, Roy Assaf, Gustavo Ramírez, Thierry Malandain, Barak Marshall, Cie 7273, Ken Ossola, and Lucinda Childs. She also performed internationally with Compagnie Gilles Jobin in Quantum (2013). Based in Luxembourg since 2016, Catarina leads AWA’s artistic direction while developping her work as an independent performer. She has collaborated with Benvindo da Fonseca, Bernard Baumgarten, Saeed Hani, Sarah Baltzinger, Sandy Flinto & Pierrick Grobety, Giovanni Zazzera, Corps in Situ, Laura Arend, Brian Ca, Arthur Pita, and Léa Tirabasso. Most recently, she developed AWA’s productions MARY’S DAUGHTERS (premiered in May 2025) and Estranha Forma (premiered in November 2025).