Blanca Arrieta (Vitoria, 1970) is a director, choreographer and performer based in Bilbao, trained at the London Contemporary Dance School/The Place. In 2000, she began her artistic production work, focused on the communicative possibilities of the body and movement. Over more than two decades, she has generated an extensive body of work in close collaboration with artists from various disciplines.

​

In her recent projects, she consolidates a unique choreographic language through interdisciplinary processes, where movement—the central axis of her work— is nourished by the exchange between different artistic practices. Her ongoing exploration of the relationships between bodies and movement as a language shapes works that build sensitive and poetic worlds, landscapes woven around the body and its architecture

 

Notable among her early stage creations are: "Vértigo" (2000), "Zero" (2001), "3600" (2003), "Memoria" (2005), "Efecto Mariposa" (2006), "Rest" (co-produced by El Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona, 2007), "En la ciudad de los ángeles" (2008), "Muda" (2008), "Chalada" (2009), "Frágil" (2010), "Argh!" (2014), "Sujetos" (2015), "Despacio" (2016), and "Una serie de aproximaciones sucesivas" (2018). 

 

Her career is complemented by substantial work in coordination, direction, and collaboration. Between 2016 and 2018, she was part of the coordination team for the Dantzan Bilaka program, promoted by the Basque Government. In 2018, she participated in the Atalak 2.0 program by Dantzaz with "Movimientos sincrónicos" and provided the choreographic direction for the film "Acromática" by visual artist Mabi Revuelta. That same year, she performed in "Any Table Any Room" by Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion at the Artium Museum in Vitoria—invited by the InTacto Festival—and collaborated on the documentary project "Germinal" by Inés Bermejo and Carla Fernández.

​

Her choreographic repertoire includes "Puzzling" (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2018), an exploration of physical construction and the architecture of the body. This line of work continued in 2019 with "Puzzling" solos, a series of solos created in collaboration with visual artist André Anta through the Faculty of Fine Arts in Vigo.

​

Her international profile includes works such as "Silvery Snot" (2006), produced by the artist and directed by John Scott, Director of the Irish Modern Dance Theatre, presented at the Dublin Fringe Festival (2007); "Frágil" (2010), co-produced by Agora de la Danse and Montréal Danse (Canada), conceived after an artistic residency supported by La Fundición Theatre in Bilbao; and a residency at Plesni Teater Ljubljana (2020) with the project "Cuerpos temporalmente alineados", an exchange initiative promoted by the Dantzaz Company which resulted in the notebook "Layers", created with illustrator Leire Llano.

​

The documentary "En busca de Silvery Snot", directed by Víctor González Rubio, received the award for Best Documentary at the Mumbai International Films Awards 2021. (vimeo.com/361845483?fl=pl&fe=vl)

​

Her growing interest in the relationships between body, sound, and space materializes in various collaborations with the KLEM Laboratory of Musical Electroacoustics, participating in the meeting La Escucha Errante (2019 and 2021 editions)—with the support of UPV/EHU—a confluence space for artists of contemporary music, electronics, and performance, and creating works such as "Siringe" (2021), presented at the space La Terminal FICC, a rehabilitated former factory on the island of Zorrotzaurre (Bilbao), and "Dislocations" (2022), a concert-installation for natural spaces presented in the bamboo forest of the Museo del Pobal in Muskiz.

​

Parallelly, her work expands into exhibition contexts, with participations in the Ellas Crean Festival, where she presented "Las Sillas" (2020) at the Sorolla Museum in Madrid (https://ellascrean.com/llenar-el-espacio-vacio-las-sillas/); in the Ikuspuntuak project of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (2021); and with the intervention "Eso" in the exhibition That Time. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao – Tabakalera for the 84th Quincena Musical of San Sebastián (2023), following an artistic residency at TABAKALERA.

​

In 2023, she created "Unseen landscapes (still and moving)" within the European program TRAINART/Artistic interventions in non-conventional contexts, an interdisciplinary project that culminated in the stage work Notwithstanding (2024). That same year, she worked as choreographic assistant on "Madre Perla", a collaboration between Maitane Sarralde and Magalie Lanrriot, premiered at the Festival dos Canais in Aveiro (Portugal).

 

 

During 2025, she will work on the adaptation of "Notwithstanding (Unplugged)" for alternative venues, a work built from a live reading of Samuel Beckett's text "Worstward Ho" in its original English version. In parallel, the creative process for "Breath" will continue, a project developed in collaboration with musician and sound artist Ainara LeGardon, creator and performer Robert Jackson, visual artist Leire Llano, and architect and creator of "Detalleres," Elena Rodriguez. This process will extend through 2026 and has the support of the Department of Culture and Language Policy of the Basque Government.

 

Furthermore, also throughout 2026, they will be responsible for the choreographic accompaniment in Almudena Perez's project “Concierto para un cuerpo” (Concert for a Body).