Alejandra Jara (Ale)

Performer, choreographer, dance teacher and certified GAGA teacher based in Cologne.

“I am interested in seeing people’s passion to move while they move, more than wonderful shapes. The possibility to combine choreography with textures, sensations and delicacy is my inspiration when I am working on a new piece.”

Alejandra was born in Paraguay, and is currently living in Cologne, Germany. After her training in classical ballet and Contemporary Dance in Asunción, she joined the National Ballet of Paraguay in 1999. With the company she performed for nine years nationally and internationally working with various choreographers in works by Austin Hartel, Ramon Oller, Ruxandra Racovitza, Birgit Asshoff, Teresa Nieto, and others. Thereafter she studied for a trimester at the Instituto Superior de Bellas Artes in Cuba. In 2011, she finished her MFA in Dance at The Ohio State University and in 2012 she became a Certified Gaga Teacher in Israel.

Besides teaching and performing, Ale has created her own choreographic work, which has been presented in Paraguay and abroad. Her solo piece Sentir (Cuba 2007) received honorable mention for performance and choreography in Festival Elsinor. Ale created Finas Agujas (2007) for the National Ballet of Paraguay as well as the works As if… (USA 2009), Passenger (USA 2010), To be (Paraguay 2011), Dame un Momento (Paraguay 2014), Eco (2016) and Blue Moon (2018). The piece IMA (2019) started with a ten-minute solo piece and now has evolved as a forty-minute piece with four female dancers. Her latest work (2021) as a performer and choreograph in collaborations with the dancers is soon to be premiered in Köln. The piece is called Beneath. Moreover there is a new Dance Film soon to be premiered as well Among the Living, which was made in Iceland for the Oscar winning song writer and singer Markéta Irglová. The work was commissioned by the author putting together a wonderful group of artists, from writers, dancers to video specialist. This was her second experience working for Markéta Irglová. The first work was in 2014 with the video of “The Leading Bird.”

Ale has received several awards, including the UNESCO Scholarship, the FULBRIGHT Scholarship and „Präsenz vor Ort – Künstlerinnen mit Kind“. Moreover, she was recognized as one of twenty outstanding women in Paraguay in 2010.