71BODIES is a transgender inclusive professional dance and performance company based in Bergen, Norway. The company was founded by Daniel Mariblanca at the beginning of his gender transition out of an urgency to both understand and document the complexities that lie within the transgender identity.
In 2018, the company premiered the multidisciplinary production 71BODIES 1DANCE, which was inspired by seventy one transgender people and their stories. It has since received local, national and international support and visibility. The performance is still on tour.
In 2020, the three-part production In First Person premiered online and in various venues around Bergen, Norway. This work was created and fully produced during the early phase of the pandemic and successfully made it to premiere during Oktoberdans, in the same year. The theater performance, In First Person: The Dance has since gone on to premiere in Dansens Hus Oslo in August 2021 as the season opener after being closed for over a year and half due to strict restrictions. The six performances received rave reviews and continues to be talked about as a “must see and experience” production.
At the end of 2021, NORMAL will premiere during the BIT Teatergarasjen programming. NORMAL is a tender production touching on the sensibilities surrounding disabilities, sexuality and gender while emphasizing the beauty within those intersections. This production is in collaboration with dancers Maria Terese Engdahl-Hoegaasen and Jean-Baptiste Baele along with invited protagonists Iva Srot, Christer Andre Gudmundsdottir, Elisabeth Vatle Helgesen and Miguel Angel Puy Carrion.
71BODIES emphasizes diverse narratives by including essential perspectives communicated through film, photography and documentary style videography incorporated in its dance and performance productions. The uniqueness of the methodology involved with each production enhances the probability of the next, continuously evolving and leading into new productions in a sustainable way.