Sandra Kramerová is a dance artist of Slovak origin with international experience from The Netherlands, New York, Israel and Slovakia. Supported by Fonds Podiumkunsten within Nieuwe Makers Regeling (New Makers Scheme 2021-2023), in collaboration with Theater de Generator in Leiden, Sandra has been making strong physical work inspired by her cultural background. Currently residing in Madrid, Spain, Sandra is involved in making new dance and audiovisual projects with her partner Álvaro Congosto.
Aspiring to create immersive theatrical experiences Sandra works with movement, visuals and text. Her multimedia dance Body as a Weapon (2020) was listed among 5 best performances of the year by newspaper Het Parool (Dutch regional daily newspaper) and her project MAJKA (2021), in which an alien girl encounters Eastern European womanhood, was praised by critics and the public in The Netherlands and Slovakia. In her dance production Dictatorship of love (2022) Sandra questions how ideals become oppressive and how even love can turn into a dictatorship. Fascinated by the tension of surrendering to a greater whole and preserving individual freedom, we follow a group of female dancers in their search for power in a crowd. We see women empowered and surrendered, torn between propaganda and protest, freedom and oppression, love and survival. The choreography highlights the political intensity of the female body in relationship to the beauty and darkness of mass choreographies.
Before arriving in The Netherlands, Sandra premiered her evening-length debut GAME ON! (2018) at Dixon Place in NYC and co-created the dance film LADIA (2017). LADIA, based on original stage choreography and directed by Álvaro Congosto, screened at festivals such as Cinedans and San Francisco Dance Film Festival (with awards from BRAGA International video dance festival, Festival de Corporalidad Expandida, Portland Dance Film Fest, ARTS TRIANGLE and Rollout Dance Film Festival).
Sandra's dance work has been presented at DT Espacio Escénico, Teatro Lagrada in Madrid (ESP), Frascati, CC Amstel, Pleintheater and Dansmakers in Amsterdam, Theater De Generator in Leiden, Schuur in Haarlem, Maaspodium in Rotterdam, Theater Kikker in Utrecht, Concordia in Enschede, Pand P in Eindhoven and Wennekerpand in Schiedam (NL), Dixon Place, BAM Fisher, Danspace Project, The Secret Theater and Bohemian National Hall in New York (US) and Nu dance fest in Bratislava and Malý Berlín in Trnava (SK) .
Before receiving her MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College in NY (2016), Sandra participated in Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company's International Dance Program in Israel (2010) and graduated with BA in Choreography from University of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia (2009). She also holds a 800-hour (RYT) Yoga alliance certification from Yogea Artflow Center in New York (2017) and has been teaching modern dance and choreography at CREA Amsterdam (2019-2023). She currently shares classes of Corporal technique at Centro Superior Katarina Gurska in Madrid.
“Sandra dances history, she celebrates survival, she is the winner. But a winner of history never forgets her fight, that's what Sandra tells us in her dance: the history that has not crushed us. ”
- Mira Feticu, writer and columnist
“From Sandra Kramerová I saw About dance, Fireflies and the end of the world as we know it and Body as a weapon. Both times I was very pleasantly struck by the great substantive eloquence of her work. With dance she manages to connect with a very broad need of the public to explain itself to the social phenomena of our environment, which for me indicates a special talent for making dance that is in demand. ”
- Tom Helmer, dramaturg Theater Bellevue
"Sandra’s work is a bright light, a searing, physicalization of our contradictory lives."
- David Neumann, American choreographer, director and performer
(Juilliard, three Bessie Awards recipient)