The everyday meanderings of an unknown woman are interrupted by the call to present, to be in the spotlight, to entertain. What begins as an introduction to the audience becomes a journey through self-realization and doubt, heightened by the awkwardness of being so visible. The original straightforward question for the critic becomes an internal struggle that must be answered and, ultimately, embraced or rejected.

Premiered at OZ Arts - nashville, Tennessee, USA (June 2021)

Performed at:
Aralik Sahne - Ankara, Turkey (May 2024)
Teatro Café Müller - Torino, Italy (April 2024)
Arts on Site - New York, New York, USA (July 2022)
Istanbul Fringe Festival - Turkey (September 2022)
Alter Ego International Theatre Festival -sofia, Bulgaria (October 2022)

Creative residency + developmental collaboration with OZ Arts (October - November 2020)

Gallery Photos by Andrea Behrends, Tiffany Bessire, BlackStig, Julian Garita

Ana Maria Lucaciu

Ana Maria Lucaciu is a freelance choreographer and performing artist based in New York City and Antwerp, Belgium.

​Born in Bucharest, Romania, Ana Maria graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada and joined Canada’s National Ballet immediately after. She went on to dance with the Royal Danish Ballet (Denmark), Augsburg Ballet (Germany), The Portuguese Contemporary Dance Company (Lisbon) and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (New York), where she danced for seven years.

Ana Maria has performed and created works with contemporary dance's foremost choreographers, including Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Jiří Kylián, Jo Stromgren, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and many others. As a freelance performer she has collaborated with New Dialect, Zoe/Juniper, Bryan Arias and Aszure Barton & Artists. She assisted Crystal Pite on her Polaris project at New York City Center, and regularly assists Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman with new creations and stages his work around the world. 

Ana Maria is a choreographer in her own right and her work has been presented by the Norwegian National Ballet, New Dialect, Purchase Dance Company, Terminus Modern Ballet Theater, Battery Dance New York, Ballet Finland, Dance Aspen, Philadelphia Ballet. In 2020 she was commissioned a short solo work by Swedish TV. She also created a full-evening duet with Nathan Griswold that has toured the US and Europe. 

Ana Maria joined London’s Rambert 2 company as a rehearsal director for the spring of 2021. She served as rehearsal director, company manager and performer for Alan Lucien Øyen’s Winter Guests’ 2022 world tour. In July 2022, she became a part time rehearsal director for Ballet Flanders in Antwerp, Belgium.

​Holder of a BFA in dance from Empire State College in New York, Ana Maria teaches ballet, contemporary, and improvisation workshops at professional programs and dance companies across the US, Europe and Asia. She is a 2018 TedX Bucharest speaker.

Visit Ana’s Website

“When Becca approached me about making a solo for her, I could not be more excited. My first question was: what are you interested in? She answered: the body. 

With that, the research began. We talked a lot about how she feels in her own body, in relation to other bodies around her, how she uses her body, how does it serve her, not only in her dancer life, but in her day-to-day life as well.

The thing that stuck with me out of these wonderful conversations, was the idea of meeting her body as a source of energy and of processing everyday life events. The thought of allowing herself to really listen to how her body reacts, absorbs, rejects, embraces whatever she experiences everyday as a human being, not only as an artist. This opened up a world of possibilities and brought us closer to the Becca who also wants to break habits, enjoy stillness, find strength, be silly, vulnerable, virtuosic, simple and free.

And so we made a solo. I hope you enjoy it.”

- Ana Maria