MATADORA by INSÉKTA
(World Premiere)
Co-produced by Synapse Arts and presented in partnership with Chicago Latino Theatre Alliance’s DESTINOS–9th Chicago International Latino Theater Festival
Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, September 25, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 12 noon
Tickets: General Admission ($30); Elder/Industry ($20); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to Columbia College Chicago students.
MATADORA is a new work of Latine Futurism about an untamable creature and the blistering rage that can smother or unchain her: beast, or diosx? MATADORA confronts Latin American mythologies that make monsters of women’s suffering, and uses dance, physical theater, and visual culture to construct a new Latine archetype that refuses domestication.
Gratuitous, grotesque, and laughing through the underworlds of her odyssey, MATADORA’s starring beast is reborn: mutated and made whole in the dignity of her rage. Violence, misogyny (its own kind of myth) cannot discipline what is meant to be free.
“As a graduate from Columbia College’s dance program, returning to premiere my first full-length work at the Dance Center is an incredible full-circle moment,” says INSÉKTA. “I was deeply impacted by the presenting series as a student and developing artist. Opening the 53rd season feels magical and it fuels me for what’s to come in my practice.”
ABOUT INSÉKTA
INSÉKTA vision is charged with the knowledge that movement holds the truths we don’t know how to name—that through rhythm, repetition, and ritual we can all reclaim parts of ourselves that have been hidden, distorted, and erased.
INSÉKTA is the artistic practice of director, choreographer, and performer Camila Rivero Pooley whose immersive dance, theater, film, and public artworks are experienced across screens, stages, and streets. Their work draws on rich artistic and emotional inheritances from Latin American futurism, mythology, lived migration, body horror, and ancestral memory to create physically charged worlds that confront our fragmented identities and the weight of suppressed Latine experiences.
INSÉKTA’s work has been featured at SPACES Gallery (Cleveland), Blow Up Film Festival (Chicago), Experimental Forum (NYC), and the Festival de Artes Escénicas (FAE) in Lima, Peru. They are a recipient of the Albert P. Weisman Award, and have worked with institutions such as Teatro La Plaza (Peru) and the Dance/USA Conference.
ABOUT DESTINOS FESTIVAL
Now in its 9th year, Destinos Festival is dedicated to amplifying Latine voices and stories on stages throughout Chicago showcasing the Latine experience as told by Latine artists from Chicago, across the U.S., and Latin America.
Banner image above: MATADORA BY INSÉKTA, pictured left to right: Sophie Daker, Lola Jett-Beachley, CJ Triche, photo by Diego Bolivar.
