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Born in El Paso, TX, and raised in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Valeria Y. Gonzalez is a dynamic and passionate dance artist, choreographer, educator, and producer. Valeria holds an MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, focusing on Performance and Pedagogy. Her thesis, Regarding the Female Body, Sexuality, and Identity in Dance, continues to influence her work today. After completing her Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies at UTEP, she continues to add to, edit, and further her research. During her time at Tisch, she had the privilege of learning from esteemed professors and choreographers such as Phyllis Lamhut, Sean Curran, Pam Pietro, Bobbi Jene Smith, Rashaun Mitchell, Jeremy Nelson, Betsy Coker, Giada Matteini, and others. She also had the opportunity to perform in HELPLESS PEOPLE by MADBOOTS with the Second Avenue Dance Company.

Before Tisch, her pre-professional journey began in Guadalajara in 2007 under the tutelage of Ballet Master Héctor Hernández, father of Isaac Hernández, now principal at ABT, where she honed her classical skills before earning a scholarship to the pre-professional program at Ballet Divertimento in 2009 in Montreal. It was in Montreal that Valeria discovered her passion for Dance Theater after being exposed to Cas Public, Marie Chouinard, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and others— a discovery that would profoundly shape her artistic vision. While at Ballet Divertimento, Valeria performed new works by Gioconda Barbuto (Nederlands Dans Theater), Eric Miles (BJM Danse), David Pressault (Toronto Dance Theater), Rayco Cano Cortes (GöteborgsOperans Danskompani), and more. In 2011, she moved to New York City for the Movement Invention Project intensive, where she was introduced to Gaga, Floorwork, Partnering, Forsythe techniques, and more by choreographers and teachers such as Shamel Pitts, Shannon Gillen, Andrea Miller, Sidra Bell, Gabriel Forestieri, Alexandra Wells, and Jill Johnson. She later was accepted to study at The Ailey School's Independent Study Program. Valeria is a dedicated lifelong learner, having participated in more than 30 prestigious dance intensives worldwide, most recently the Atlas Biennial Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico, OBOC: Countertechnique, and GAGA.

In 2014, Valeria founded VALLETO, a New York-based collective of dance artists dedicated to challenging the status quo and reshaping the boundaries of contemporary dance. We embrace raw, experimental work that questions conventions, explores the subconscious's mind thorugh movmement exploration and creative risk-taking.

VALLETO has also produced biennial intensives and The Heal Project, with eight intensives so far. Immediately after graduate school, Valeria was offered a teaching position at the University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College, where she worked for two years. During that time, she enrolled in and completed a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies at UTEP. Last year, while living in Austin, TX, she was invited to be a guest choreographer at the University of Texas at Austin for the senior students, in addition to creating the first two parts of her Eternal Bonds trilogy and producing a summer intensive.

In addition, Valeria earned a BFA in Communications and TV Production from the New York Institute of Technology, which led to a position as an Associate Producer at NBC New York, where she worked for four years. Fast forward to today: after five years of living nomadically through El Paso, Guadalajara, Miami, and Austin, Valeria is thrilled to return to her true home, New York City, to continue the evolving VALLETO, and launch new projects.

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