Milagros García Salgueiro

My name is Milagros, I was born on September 15, 1993, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am the daughter of teachers and the eldest of three siblings. When I was 7, my family moved to a small town in the province of Córdoba, where we were surrounded by mountains, German immigrants, gauchos, and chacareras. My first steps as a dancer were taken in front of a full-length mirror to the rhythm of traditional Galician music. Seeing me dance, my mother signed me up for every dance class available for kids in town. I went from dancing tango and Argentine folklore to Spanish dances, ballet, and finally contemporary dance. At the same time, my father insisted that I study music, spending many years in front of the piano and practicing solfège, something I hated back then.

At 18, I moved to the city of Córdoba, where I studied at the Universidad Provincial de Córdoba and collaborated with various dance and theater companies there. At 22, I moved to Barcelona with the desire to keep dancing as much as I could. I worked as a waitress, as a fish shop saleswoman, as an art model, in food trucks, and at the Gracia neighborhood festivals. I made new friends. I learned to speak English. I fell in and out of love. I traveled. I did awful auditions. I tried calçots. And whenever I could, I kept dancing. At 25, together with Valentina Azzati, I started the project Si Los Martes Fueran Viernes (If Tuesdays Were Fridays).

Between 22 and 31, I collaborated with various companies and projects, some more appealing than others, but all of them left a mark on how I dance and understand the stage. Some of them: LaCerda, João Fiadeiro, Colectivo La Majara, Los Informalls, Lucas Condró, and Mal Pelo. I also discovered teaching, which led me to carry out the *Prácticas para un Futuro* (Practices for a Future) labs, participate in the projects *EnResidencia* and *SuDanza*, and teach in various spaces. I also rediscovered my interest in music and began to create sound design for the pieces of SLMFV and to advise different colleagues. I also discovered the films of Lynch, Varda, Rohrwacher, and *Plats Bruts*, the sardana, and the correfocs. I also visited the town where my grandfather was born in Galicia and met my Spanish family. I also discovered Kali Malone, the books of Irene Solà, and saw a medieval castle for the first time. I also learned about the “emparedadas” (walled-in women) and medieval mystics who inspired my first solo, *Es pecado que una virgen ría con descaro* (It’s a sin for a virgin to laugh brazenly).

For now, I’m still dancing. And as my grandmother used to say, “thank God,” I’m doing well.

@milasalguei

Residency project

Es pecado que una virgen ría con descaro presents a poetic universe based on the figure of the “muradas” or recluses, women who, during the Late Middle Ages in Europe, chose to enclose themselves in small cells within urban centers as a rejection of the kinship and gender systems of the time. This act freed them from any social contract or obligation, allowing them a life of retreat where the ownership of their bodies and thoughts was directed solely toward themselves. Many of them engaged in mystical reflection and left behind a vast legacy of thoughts and experiences, which I have brought into dialogue with my experience as a 21st-century woman. In this way, the stage space transforms into the cell of a *murada*, where the performer’s body becomes an act of presence, resistance, and creative power.

Milagros García Salgueiro collaborates on this project with Jordi Cardoner, Julia Irango, S. Morrison, Juliana of Norwich, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Joan Cot Ros, Tim Hecker, Hildegard von Bingen, Iván Cascón, and Sabrina Lescano.

 

Residency Archive Graner

  • 2024 · crossed residency with La Granja (València) · Es pecado que una virgen ría con descaro

Graner other contexts