Sebastián Oreamuno

I’m a queer artist and academic who was born in what is known as Santiago, Chile, which is on
the traditional territory of the Mapuche peoples, Wallmapu; and my family immigrated to B.C.
when I was eight. As an uninvited guest to this land, I’m grateful to have grown up on
Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) territory and to be currently based in Tkaronto,
which has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and, presently, by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. I’ve been fortunate and privileged to continue speaking Castellano, my mother tongue, and to be able to learn and experience different dance forms, a passion that began at a young age in Chile and that was later reignited in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh.

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I hold a BA in Psychology from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), an MA in Dance from York University (Toronto), and a PhD in Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies from York University. My master’s project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), investigated the complicated relationship between men and pointe work. Articles that emerged out of this research include "The Pointe Shoe: A Tool for Knowledge Production" (2018, published in Contingent Horizons); "The Boy with the Dancified Body: An 'Automythnography'" (2019, published in Performance Matters); and "Stories of Men on Pointe" (2019, published in Dance Collection Danse Magazine). My PhD research, funded by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, focused on the effects of movement on embodied memory. I learned cueca, the Chilean national dance, over the course of a year through a multi-modal research-creation methodology that was inspired by my daily practice of dancing, drawing and writing; and, through a critical memory practice, I tracked the emergence of an embodied memory of cueca. "Thoughts of Sorts" (2021, published in New Sociology) offers a sample of the writings and drawings that have emerged from this daily practice. In 2023, I shared preliminary insights on my research through the dance piece Copucha + Gup Shup, which put cueca in conversation with kathak. This piece was co-choreographed with artist-academic, colleague and friend Arpita Bajpeyi and in collaboration with thirteen dancers from  the York Dance Ensemble (YDE) at York University. My other artistic and academic interests include photographing cats, multi-media practices, migrant and diasporic identities, 1.5-generation experiences, the participatory body and popular culture. 

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I've had the pleasure of working as a dancer with Sashar Zarif (Kismet 2019, 2020; Re/turning 2021), Aria Evans (heart2heart 2022) and Nava Waxman (Variations on Blue Gesture 2020). I've also collaborated with documentary filmmaker Juan Pablo Pinto on a multi-media project, Fragmentos (2019, 2021), and on short films for Minka por los Páramos (2023-2025)—a project that documents land and water protectors' fight against Canadian mining in the south of Ecuador. A work-in-progress of Fragmentos was presented at Aluna Theatre's 2019 Caminos Festival; and in 2021, a short, experimental film version of Fragmentos was screened at aluCine Latin Film + Media Arts Festival. The film received the Audience Choice Award. In 2024, Sebastian Mena and I co-founded the DeCaras Collective to dive into our Chilean, diasporic identities and migrant experiences. We are currently developing a duet, Palomas, that investigates Latinx queer identities, movements and connectivities.