Olga de Soto is a choreographer, dancer and dance researcher born in Spain and based in Brussels since 1990. Following training in classical ballet, contemporary dance and music theory at the Superior school of music and dance in her home country, as well as the Madrid and Valance superior conservatory of music, Olga de Soto trained at the prestigious Angers National centre for contemporary dance, then under the direction of Michel Reilhac. It was here that she would make important contacts, including dancer and ballet director Hans Züllig, favourite dancer of Kurt Jooss and teacher at the Folkwang Hochschule de Essen. She also met Susan Buirge, Elsa Wolliaston, Odile Duboc and French historian, art critic and writer, Laurence Louppe. 

As a dancer, she has worked with Michèle Anne De Mey on performances of Brahms’ Three Hungarian Dances, Sinfonia Eroica and Châteaux en Espagne; with Pierre Droulers on his work Comme si on était leurs petits poucets and on the project Thé dansant, which she will coordinate at Plateau – a multidisciplinary artistic laboratory in Brussels. She has also worked with Felix Ruckert on the performance Hautnah !… and is guest artist for Meg Stuart’s project Crash Landing @Leuven. Over the last few years, she has frequently worked with Boris Charmatz, on the performance Con forts fleuve, as well as working for over over five years as assistant choreographer and performer for Jérôme Bel, on The Show Must Go On, performed in numerous countries throughout the world.  

In 1992, she began to create her own work, centred around choreographic research and writing, with her solo Patios. Subsequently, she has created many works including: I believe that if I act… (…upon the dimension of time it will be difficult to find myself at the place where I am expected to be) created at the Bergen Internasjonale Teateren in 1993, in Norway, A destiempo, also created at the Bergen Internasjonale Teater in 1995; the installation Sueño (for the Parque Güell in Barcelona); Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues created at the Centre de Développement Chorégraphique in Toulouse in 1996; Murmures created for the Uzès Festival de la Nouvelle Danse in 1997; Strumentale created at the Teatro Nacional de las Artes, in Mexico City in 1997; Seuls bruits des corps entre eux which was presented along with three previous works, under the title Paumes – a collection of short pieces exploring different ways of relating to contemporary music, which premiered at the Théâtre de la Balsamine In Brussels in 1997; anarborescences created at the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale in Paris in 1999; Eclats mats created at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2001; INCORPORER created at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2004; histoire(s) created for the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Bruxelles in 2004 and more.  

It was also in 2004 that she started to create an evolutive work exploring the memory of the body, which she developed over the course of five years. The project began with the creation of INCORPORER ce qui reste in 2006 at the Franche-Comté National choreographic centre in Belfort; INCORPORER ce qui reste ici au cœur in 2007 at the Biennale Charleroi/Danses 2007 in Brussels, and INCORPORER ce qui reste ici au dans mon cœur at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2009. In 2010, she created the documentary performance Une Introduction for the Festival Tanz Im August in Berlin, as well as her performance installation Sous-clé for the Kunstenfestivaldesarts In Brussels. In 2012, after extensive documentary research, she created the piece Débords / Réflexions sur La Table Verte for the Festival Latitudes in Halles, Brussels, which had its French premier at the Festival d'Automne in Paris. 

Part of her choreographic research and development was carried out through the study of works by contemporary composers such as, Salvatore Sciarrino, Michael Jarrell, Kaija Saariaho, Stefano Scodanibbio, Frederic Rzewski and Denis Pousseur among others. Olga de Soto also collaborated for several years with the IRCAM in Paris. Over the last ten years, her work has centred around the theme of memory, of imprints, and questions the impact of the performing arts, their utility and sustainability. Her work can be divided into two main approaches, the first focusing on the study of the body’s memory: present in pieces such as Murmures, Eclats mats and INCORPORER ce qui reste ici au dans mon cœur and the second concentrating on perceptual memory, that of dancers and audiences, particularly in pieces such as histoire(s), Une Introduction and Débords. 

Olga de Soto’s work is inseparable from her extensive research process based on extensive documentation, which breaks away from typical timescales and approaches to production.  

Olga de Soto is regularly invited to give workshops and lectures, she she speaks at conferences, seminars and symposiums, where she shares her methodology and research (2nd Biennale Tanzausbildung / Folkwang University Essen, Angers CNDC, Lyon University, Bern University/Symposium “Original und Revival” - Bern, MOV_S / Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia - Madrid, La Cambre - Brussels, 3rd Biennale Tanzausbildung / Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt). 

Olga de Soto was artist in residence in Halles, Brussels from 2009 to 2012 and is currently in residence at Charleroi/Danses / Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. 

She won the 2013 SACD prize for the performing arts in Belgium.