About Macarena
Dance artist and movement teacher. Twenty years of performance and teaching across Chile, the US, Italy, Japan, and the UK.
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Background
Rooted in movement
Macarena Ortúzar trained in formal dance in Chile before a growing curiosity about what lived beyond choreography drew her outward — to New York, Italy, and Japan. Each place shifted how she understood movement and the body.
Now based in Oxford, that thread feeds Beyond Movement — a practice of embodied exploration across Somatic Yoga, creative movement, bodywork, group events, and workshops.
The journey
From Chile to Oxford
Each place shifted how she understood the body, movement, and what it means to be human and call yourself a dancer.
- 01
The beginning
Chile
Born in Chile and trained in formal dance, Macarena built technical skill while a growing unease with how institutions framed the body and how social and political repression shaped people's lives sharpened her questions — curiosity about what lived beyond dance, institutions, and choreography.
“I was taught to dance in a studio within structure, but something felt missing.”
- 02
Expansion
New York
Experimental work in New York City and Houston widened what dance could be — performance as inquiry, not only repertoire. Collision, contrast, permission to try.
“There are other and endless ways to move and express the story of your dance.”
- 03
The question
Italy
My encounters with La MaMa Theatre brought curiosity tightened into intention. Butoh appeared on the horizon, and movement began to read from the inside out — less about shape, more about presence.
“How does dance live in you?”
- 04
Immersion
Japan
Body Weather Farm — Tokason Butoh Troupe with Min Tanaka. Land, labour, repetition. The line between daily life and dance dissolved. Not a course to finish — a rhythm to inhabit.
“Dance is not something you do, it is what you are and how you live.”
- 05
Today
Oxford
Now based in Oxford — performance work, site-responsive exploration, and Beyond Movement. Somatic Yoga, creative movement, bodywork, group events, and workshops. The thread that began in Chile feeds a practice rooted here.
“Movement is the Song of the Body”
Get in touch
Questions about Macarena, the studio, or which practice might suit you — we would love to hear from you.
Say hello
Fluidity in the exploration opens spaces where we learn to move gracefully softening the edges of our movement.
Where To Find Us
North Oxford
Yogalina Studios Oxford 3rd & 4th Floor, Belsyre Court, 57 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HJ