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About the Festival

Prisma Dance Foundation

info@festivalprisma.com

Since its founding in 2012, PRISMA has established itself as an open, inclusive platform in constant dialogue with the multiple voices, trends, and territories that shape contemporary dance in Ibero-America and around the world.

Festival PRISMA is an independent, non-profit project organized by the PRISMA Danza Foundation, directed by Panamanian cultural managers Analida Galindo and Ximena Eleta de Sierra.

Unlike festivals with a fixed curatorial line, PRISMA is committed to a collective and plural curatorial approach, built each year through an open international call and a diverse selection committee. This model responds to its core mission: to cultivate and expand audiences by offering a diverse and accessible program that generates meaningful experiences for broad audiences, both within and beyond specialized circles.

The festival is distinguished by its openness to multiple choreographic languages, formats, and cultural perspectives, reflecting the richness of the contemporary landscape. Its proposals address themes such as identity, migration, the environment, gender, territory, history, and the political body from both local and global viewpoints.

Committed to accessibility, inclusion, and territorial engagement, PRISMA combines theater performances with free presentations in public spaces—such as plazas, schools, and metro stations—bringing dance closer to communities historically distant from cultural offerings.

In addition, PRISMA features a robust, free educational program that includes master classes, laboratories, screenings, talks, and workshops. These initiatives strengthen training, critical thinking, and artistic exchange in the region, consolidating PRISMA as a platform for creation, circulation, and community-building around contemporary dance.

Rooted in PRISMA’s commitment to access, inclusion, and long-term artistic development, Prisma Lab is an annual creation residency composed of two strands: Prisma Lab Professional, designed for local dancers, and Prisma Lab Juvenile, created for young local dance students from socially vulnerable communities

Over the course of 10 days, participants work three hours a day with an international choreographer, exploring movement tools, collective creation, and personal expression.

The laboratory provides a safe space to develop an individual voice, build confidence, and form meaningful connections with contemporary artists. The experience culminates in a presentation within the festival’s official program, where the young participants appear as both creators and performers, showcasing their talent and highlighting the value of dance as a tool for transformation and belonging.

This program reaffirms PRISMA’s commitment to equitable access to artistic education and to building real opportunities for Panamanian youth.

Co-Directors

Ximena Eleta de Sierra is a Panamanian dancer and choreographer whose practice moves between contemporary dance and aerial dance as territories for poetic exploration. With academic training in languages, education, and movement in Panama and the United States, she directs CÍA. Gramo Danse, where she investigates the body in suspension, space, and liminality. Her work has been presented at national and international festivals and engages with stage-based, vertical, and audiovisual formats. She is co-founder and co-director of PRISMA – Panama International Contemporary Dance Festival, developing her practice from a vision that integrates creation, pedagogy, and community.

Analida Galindo understands dance as a practice of social transformation. Her work integrates artistic creation, pedagogy, and community action through an ethic grounded in care and equity. In 2010, she founded Enlaces, a program that supports young people from vulnerable communities through contemporary dance as a process of human development. She is co-founder of PRISMA – Panama International Contemporary Dance Festival, a key platform for artistic encounter, training, and circulation in the region. Her leadership advances collaborative models in which dance is affirmed as a shared cultural good.

Team

PRISMA is sustained thanks to a team that has been present since the very beginning — a group of people who share a common vision and believe in dance as a space for encounter, care, and transformation.

General & Artistic Direction
Analida Galindo, Ximena Eleta de Sierra

Management & Production Assistant
Mayrena Briones

Production, Logistics & Transportation
Carolina Martínez

Field Production
Raúl Cornejo, Arielka Juárez

Communications Direction
Arian Abadi – Otra-Otra

Social Media Coordination
Maricarmen Díaz – Switch, Inc

Audiovisual Production & Photography
Raphael Salazar, Eduard Serra, Andrés Niño

Art Direction
Juan Rivera – Muchagana, Johann Wolfschoon

Website Design
Paulina León

Technical Direction
José Alexander Morales Carvajal

Lighting Director
Jhon Alexander León Osorio

Lighting Designers
Melisa Varïsh (Mexico), Luisa Manuela Gutiérrez (Colombia), Amaya Segura Jauregüi (Mexico), Jonathan Valdivieso (Panama), Rodrigo Toledo Hidalgo (Mexico)

Sound Engineers
David Colindres, Josh Perén