Katiana Rangel (they/them) has a long performance and teaching history in Brazil where they founded a theater and performance research group called Untitled 29, for which they translated, co-directed, and performed 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane. In NYC, Katiana recently conceived, with the anthropologist Jasmine Pisapia, the project The Vessel, directed by Richard Maxwell. They are currently working with Jim Fletcher on Four Seasons, work derived from Sarah Kane’s Blasted, as well as devoloping projects with Untitled 29 with their collaborators in São Paulo. As a solo artist they have created the performance works Suspended (Movement Research at the Judson Church, Performance Art Festival in Pittsburgh, 12 Minutes Max at Base, Seattle), and Iraci or What’s Underneath My Skin (ITINERANT Festival, NYC). They are also a founding member of the dance group Les Ballets Nomades (Voices Transposed: The Refugee Crisis 2016 at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center), and a collaborator of New York City Players. They believe in art as a portal to experience the ineffable by anyone at any time. Their life research has been how to create such works.
Suspended is a proposal for an aesthetic experience from a situation in which a woman (Katiana Rangel), hangs herself up using her own clothes to a horizontal bar, at approximately 3.3 feet from the ground. She goes to the bar. She takes off each piece of clothing she is wearing and binds herself with them to the bar. She stays there. The process of binding herself and remaining hanging imposes certain limitations for the movement that, in turn, enable the experience of unusual movements. Such movements inhabit a fine line between pain arising from the bonds, the stress caused by the effort to build a web to support herself, and the rapt trance of some positions that become paradoxically comfortable. It is an aesthetic that articulates pleasure and pain, and also evokes a sense of elevation. In the mode of the contemporary sublime, it provides an experience of what is inaudible and invisible that the bodies reveal when their most primitive impulses are accessed. This piece is currently being created by Katiana Rangel and João Paulo Nascimento.
KATIANA RANGEL
Creator of new experimental theater and performance
katianarangel.com / katjanarangel@gmail.com / 1 646 247 5593
EDUCATION
Fundação Armando Alvarez Penteado (FAAP), São Paulo, Brazil - Film Critics, 2008
Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), São Paulo, Brazil - Arts, Theater, Music and
Teaching, 2005
THEATER/PERFORMANCE/DANCE
2011 Founded the theater research group called Untitled 29.
2013 - Current New York City Players Collaborator - Director, Teaching Artist and Actor.
2016 - Founding Member of the International Dance Company Les Ballets Nomades.
2018 - 2019 Manager and Artistic Producer at Nalanda West.
AWARDS AND HONORS
Artist at 12 Minutes Max at Base Arts Space, Seattle, WA, 2019
Artist at Movement Research at the Judson Church, 2015
Under the Radar’s Devised Theatre Working Group with Tele-Violet, 2014 - 2015
Artistic Residency and Show Production 4.48 Psychosis SESC SAO PAULO, 2013
Actor Nomination, Saint Tropez Film Festival, 2013
PROJECTS
Four Seasons - Blasted by Sarah Kane. A project in collaboration with Jim Fletcher to explore
an open and spacious way to address violence and horror of war in contemporary theater. 2014-
Current.
The Vessel A partnership with Jasmine Pisapia, Richard Maxwell and New York City Players.
The show presents eulogies written and spoken by members of Incoming Theater Division on a
boat on NYC Harbor, 2021.
What This Stillness Brought Us A series of voice interviews between New York City Players
Incoming Theater Division members, 2020.
Suspended A movement based performance work that relates women’s body, dictatorship and
suspension of language as symbolic reference; Movement Research at the Judson Church,
New York, International Performance Art Festival, Bunker Projects at SPACE Gallery,
Pittsburgh, and 12 Minutes Max at Base Arts Space, Seattle, WA, 2019.
Iraci or What’s Underneath My Skin An homage performance to the native blood in me and in
Brazil; ITINERANT Performance Art Festival 2017; Grace Exhibition Space, New York.
Milarepa Stories Readings, Staged Readings and Performances about the life and teachings
of the yogi Milarepa; Nalanda West, Seattle, WA, 2019.
Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch. A puppet show for children in collaboration with
the visual artist Lynne Conrad Marvet; Nalanda West, Seattle, WA, 2018-2019.
Ama: The Woman Diver a collaboration with Jim Fletcher and Lori Goldston to create a new
contemporary work with the Noh Play Ama; Nalanda West, 2018.
4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane. A breakthrough in contemporary playwriting staged in
collaboration with Rodrigo Pavon and João Paulo Nascimento as part of Untitled 29’s research
for postmodern language in theater, Untitled 29, Sesc São Paulo, Brazil, 2013.
SELECTED WORKS IN THEATER AND PERFORMANCE
The Power of Emotion: The Apartment, written by Shonni Enelow, directed by Katherine Brook;
Mount Tremper Arts, Mount Tremper, NY; and Abrons Art Center, New York, 2017.
The Second Wedding of Yasmin Blessing to Jeff Jackman Jr, directed by Tory Vazquez, New
York City Players; The Performing Garage, New York, 2017.
MYTHO : Lure of Wildness, written by Anna Kohler, directed by Caleb Hammond; Playwrights
Theater, Boston MA; and Abrons Art Center, New York, 2016.
I Came From There, I Am Here Now, directed by Tory Vazquez, New York City Players; The
Kitchen, NYC, 2015-2016.
Heïmatlos, Les Ballets Nomades; Voices Transposed: The Refugee Crisis, Manhattan
Movement and Arts Center, New York, 2016.
TEACHING FOR UNIVERSITIES
Institute of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Minho, Porto, Portugal
Guest professor for Techniques of Theatrical Documentation with Professor Tales Frey for the
Bachelor in Theater Program, 2021.
FILM DOCUMENTARY: DIRECTOR
Homenagem Fria/Cold Homage (Rus/Fra/Bra/USA) directed by Katiana Rangel and Marina Ta-
kami, 2019-2022.
FILM: ACTOR
Desert World of Black Souls (Brazil, 2015) directed by Ruy Veridiano
Bebete & Daniboy (Brazil, 2013) directed by Ruy Veridiano
TRANSLATIONS: PLAYS
The Sleepless Night by Joaquim Vicente (Portuguese to English), 2017.
Venus Flytrap by Jô Bilac (Portuguese to English), 2017.
Genderless an outlaw body by Marcia Zanelatto (Portuguese to English), 2017.
How Not to Be by Daniela Pereira de Carvalho (Portuguese to English), 2017.
House, The End of Reality, Champions of Magic, Flight Courier Service (with Rodrigo Pavon)
and Showy Lady Slipper by Richard Maxwell (English to Portuguese), 2011-2021.
What Where by Samuel Beckett (English to Portuguese), 2021.
Katiana Rangel
katjanarangel@gmail.com