Serena Wuytack

As a dancer-choreographer, Serena Wuytack created, among other works, Urban Nomads; this performance was named ‘The Director’s Choice’ at the Canterbury International Arts Festival. In her visual dance installation ‘Waer bestu bleven’, she collaborated with Alex De Graef, a man with an intellectual and physical disability. This was described by Hedy d’Ancona (former Dutch Minister of Culture) as “A beautiful exhibition. Highly recommended.” And by the Director of the Special Art Festival as “To me, this is how art should be. Pure and profound. This whole picture is right. It struck me deeply.”

Serena has collaborated with artists from various disciplines, including Kayoko Minami, Iris Bouche, Sofia Yero, Kumiko Idesawa, Servé Hermans, Maya Wuytack, Koen Haagdorens, Jolanda Luijten, Myrddin De Cauter, Margriet De Haene, Roxorloops, Darya Gantura, Hans Beckers, Grupo Madera, A gente Libre, Goele Van Dijck, Peter van Ammel, and others. She danced in various dance (theatre) companies in Venezuela.

Dance is the common thread running through her life, and she transformed her passion into growing expertise early on. At the age of four, she began her journey at Ballet Astrid, which continued throughout her life up to and including her training in Contemporary Dance at the Antwerp Conservatory.

Born into an artistic family that traveled the world, she came into contact with many dance forms from childhood, in which she professionalized. From the age of six, she took flamenco lessons with Geneviève Galo, which she continued with Mercedez Ruíz in Jerez de la Frontera. Growing up in Costa Rica, she absorbed salsa, voodoo, and Latin dance styles, in which she professionalized and passed on as a salsa teacher as a teenager. Later, she danced in Venezuela with Grupo Madera, which collaborated with salsa stars such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. In addition to dancing with the company, she regularly ventured into the slums with other dancers and musicians to work creatively with young people and build bonds, in an attempt to keep them out of the drug world. Serena met the Warao Indians (Orinoco Delta) with several Venezuelan anthropologist friends (from the Instituto Caribe de Antropologia y Sociologia) to study and learn indigenous dances. In Mexico, she worked at a home for street children (Accíon casa hogar- diaboloas rojos), where she used dance expression and murals to visualize and give a place to their emotional world. This was done under her motto: ‘creativity to set processes in motion’.

Contemporary dance and crossovers remain the common thread in her work.

Serena studied at the Antwerp Conservatory. Later, during her teacher training at the Antwerp Conservatory, she developed a new (philosophical) dance methodology for young children and adults. This is a method for teaching dance and ballet technique based on philosophical principles, thereby stimulating the dancer's intrinsic motivation, awareness, and personal growth. Serena took masterclasses with Akram Kahn, Ultima Vez, and Constanza Macras. She was a guest lecturer at KASK. She gives workshops both domestically and internationally and has judged various dance competitions. As a teacher, she has been teaching Partnering and Lifting techniques in the Dance Department and physical acting in movement in the drama department of the Kunsthumaniora in Brussels for many years.

She worked as a choreographer on the mirror production *Vergeten Straat* by NTGent, directed by Servé Hermans (now artistic director of Toneelgroep Maastricht).

Serena grew up amidst the studio of her father, sculptor and activist Frans Wuytack. Just like in many circus families, she inherited this craft from father to daughter. She won awards for her visual work at a young age.

At just 16, she completed her first classical portrait of the Greek poetess Sappho. Subsequently, she developed a style entirely her own with her bronze sculptures. With these, she won the gold medal at the international festival in Lower Normandy in 2003, the gold medal at the national Spectraal competition in 2004, and the gold medal at the international competition of the Académie Européenne des Arts in 2005.

In 2008, she completed her first jewelry collection in bronze, silver, and gold. Her jewelry and sculptures have been and continue to be on display in various art galleries.

Her visual talent branches out in many directions. For instance, she helped shape the book 'Persona Non grata, Frans Wuytack', a book she wrote together with her sister about her father's turbulent life. Later, poetry collections, flyers, postcards... followed. Serena was involved in various film projects, including the music-film performance Vlernica (Trefpunt non-profit), Beyond Borders (Handicum non-profit),...

Serena gives workshops and lectures at dance festivals at home and abroad. You can always contact her for more information.