Joy Alpuerto Ritter
Choreographic response to Kazuko Miyamoto

Joy Alpuerto Ritter’s choreographic work is shaped by a fusion of movement vocabularies: her classical background in ballet and contemporary dance intersects with early studies of Philippine and Polynesian traditional dances, and extends into her engagement with Berlin’s Hip Hop and Voguing scenes. Rooted in a deep commitment to the communal aspects of dance, Alpuerto Ritter moves between stage-based productions and urban practices, bridging distinct cultural aesthetics and choreographic traditions.

In her durational performance at KW, unfolding in three 20-minute sequences (17:00, 17:45, 18:30) over the course of three hours, Alpuerto Ritter enters into dialogue with Trail Dinosaur, one of Kazuko Miyamoto’s largest works of her String Construction series, which is installed on the third floor. This encounter extends a line back to Miyamoto’s own practice. In 1979, the artist invited dancer Yoshiko Chuma to perform in relation to one of her large-scale string sculptures, later known as A Girl on Trail Dinosaur. The performance emphasized the role of the body in shaping the String Constructions, and points to Miyamoto’s growing interest in the body, the performativity of space and form, and the politics of labor and display. 

Joy Alpuerto Ritter (b. 1982, USA) grew up in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, and trained in ballet at an early age. After graduating from the Palucca Dance School in Dresden in 2004, she established herself as a versatile Berlin-based dancer and choreographer, working across classical ballet, contemporary dance, Philippine folk, urban, and street styles. Ritter has toured internationally with renowned companies including Akram Khan Company, Wangramirez, Christoph Winkler, Heike Hennig, and Cirque du Soleil.

Music and sound design: Miguel Toro