Ximena Garnica
Ximena Garnica is a Colombian-born multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, director, curator, and teacher. She is a Visiting Lecturer in the Theater, Dance & Media program at Harvard University. With her partner, multidisciplinary artist Shige Moriya, Ximena is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the New York-based arts organization LEIMAY and its performance group, the LEIMAY Ensemble. Their collaborative works encompass sculptural, video, light, and mixed-media installations; photography; film; contemporary dance and theater performances; publications; relational artworks; and research-driven projects.
Their work offers spectators multiple entry points to engage with questions of being, perception, interdependency, and coexistence. Their collaborative works have been presented in multiple New York venues including at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, HERE, PERFORMA, Prototype Festival, Watermill Center, ALL ARTS, Japan Society.
Although diverse in form, all of Ximena’s collaborative projects are deeply interconnected, forming what they describe as "the entanglement"—a nonlinear journey rooted in transformation as both an aesthetic and a way of living. From kinetic sculptures activated by the human body to A.I.-driven systems that trigger sound and light, and from analog choreographies of bodies to light installations inspired by abstracted nature, their work challenges the boundaries of form and perception. Their eco-poetic films, immersive cooking performances, art books, artifacts, pedagogical and community-driven spaces, creative residencies, academic initiatives, and stewardship of CAVE—a building dedicated to live arts practice—invite multiplicity, dissolve binaries, and dwell in the potentialities of the in-between.
Ximena Garnica received the Van Lier Fellowship for extraordinary stage directors. Alongside Shige Moriya, she has been honored with prestigious accolades in both the United States and Colombia. Their U.S. recognitions include the Creative Capital Award, the NYFA Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Practice, the NYFA Women’s Fund Award, the NEFA NDP grant, and support from the Café Royal Foundation. They have also been nominated for the USA Artists Fellowship and the Herb Alpert Award. LEIMAY, under the leadership of Garnica and Moriya, received a transformational award from the Mellon Foundation in recognition of their contributions to the arts and their commitment to fostering interdisciplinary and community-centered practices. Their work has also been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). In 2024, their project Kinetic Resonances was awarded the prestigious Beca Nacional de Creación en Artes Expandidas de Larga Trayectoria by the Colombian Ministry of Culture(s), Arts, and Knowledge(s).
They have been recipients of residencies at the Bogliasco Foundation, HERE HARP, The Watermill Center, Chelsea Factory, ALL ARTS, Movement Research at The New Museum, and the Bessie Schönberg Residency at The Yard.
Ximena Garnica has taught at the Music and Theater Arts Department at MIT, as well as in the Dance Departments at Marymount Manhattan College and Sarah Lawrence College. She served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California, Riverside (2018–2019).
Her teaching centers on the embodiment of imagination as a radical act for transformation, self-empowerment, and ecological awareness. She encourages students to question Eurocentric notions of time, space, and the body. Her classes embrace vulnerability, encourage debate on social issues, and emphasize aesthetic sensibility.
With the LEIMAY Ensemble, she has developed LUDUS, a practice that explores methods to physically condition the body while developing a sensitivity to the "in-between space." LUDUS has evolved through years of teaching, training, and research, drawing from direct transmissions of embodied knowledge by Japanese Butoh pioneers, Noguchi Taiso practitioners, and Experimental Theater innovators. It serves as LEIMAY’s world of theory and practice, providing a working foundation for Shige and Ximena’s artistic projects.
Ximena’s creative practice extends to advocacy for affordable live-work spaces. Her activism played a key role in influencing policy changes at the state level to protect these spaces in New York City. More recently, through LEIMAY, she co-founded the Cultural Solidarity Fund, which provided over $1 million in $500 relief microgrants to NYC artists and cultural workers affected by COVID-19.
Her writing was included in the article "LEIMAY, CAVE, and the New York Butoh Festival," published in The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance. LEIMAY’s work has been reviewed in newspapers, journals, and books, including The New York Times, HowlRound, TDR, and Butoh America. LEIMAY’s creative works are often accompanied by published process books that detail the creative experience and include interviews with collaborating artists and critical responses from scholars and writers.
www.leimay.org