Varinia Canto Vila (Santiago de Chile, 1976) is a dancer, choreographer and movement researcher. In her choreographic work, she has explored themes inherent to the body and the stage as a medium of art, such as the three-dimensionality of the body on stage (No Title, 2008); the finitude of space (Beast, 2008); intention and desire as a manifestation of self-reflexivity in the dancing body (During Beginning Ending, 2010); and haptic vision, collage (or fragmentation) as a performative principle, and attention to its materiality through bodies, objects and the scenic space (by getting one’s hands dirty, 2017). Since 2016, Canto Vila has developed research on the notion of extended choreography and organization of the movement of the social body, where he explores the relationship between law and movement, generating a change in her interests and beginning to focus more on the relationship between art and politics. In 2023 she created a performance piece Maneras de Salir around the notions of distances and closeness between people and their worlds.

Canto Vila resided for 24 years in Brussels, Belgium, where he showed his work at deSingle in Antwerpen, Kunstencentrum Buda Kortrijk, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Halles des Schaerbeek in Brussels, Malta Festival in Poland, W-o-l-k-e Festival. Since 2019, he has lived and worked in Santiago de Chile where he has exhibited his work at the Gabriela Mistral Center (GAM), the Nave Creation Center, the National Institute Extension Center, Matucana 100, among others.

Canto Vila graduated as a dancer from the University of Chile in 1987 and from PARTS in 1999. In 2014, she graduated from London Goldsmiths University, where she completed a master’s degree in Art and Politics. In January 2017 she completed a postgraduate degree in a.pass (Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies), in Brussels, in which she developed performative and video work. As dancer/performer, Canto Vila collaborated with several artists and choreographers from the independent dance/performance scene in Brussels, such as Claire Croizé, Marcos Simoes, Mette Edvardsen, Thomas Steyaert and Raul Maia, amongst others. She collaborated with Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods on Highway 101 (2000), VIOLET (2011), The Matter lab (2021), and Confirm Humanity (2022). In 2019 Canto Vila co-created BUSCANDO A MEG, a collaboration with Ale Miller, Francisca Espinoza and Paulina Vielma, in Chile; and in 2021, she co-created NAMING FICTION alongside Quindell Orton, in Germany. In 2022 Canto Vila was invited by Moriah Evans to work on Restos and later on Remains Persist, in the USA. She currently works and lives in Chile.