Eva Urbanová is a queer Slovak-born choreographer, dancer, and performance maker based in Vienna. Their work explores transformation through embodied practices of touch, voice, and movement, focusing on how perception and relation shift through changes in physical state.
Their background in rhythmic gymnastics forms an early physical foundation: a training of precision, elasticity, endurance, and extreme bodily modulation, which informs their research on the monstrous as a shape-shifting body. Here, the body moves between control and release, stability and disorientation, generating states that disrupt habitual patterns and open new ways of sensing and relating.
What Eva refers to as “the monster” is not a character but a trained bodily state, reached through shifts in attention, breath, and tension, where pain and pleasure reorganize and the body exceeds its habitual limits. Rather than spectacle, the monstrous functions as a method of revealing—allowing the body to access what is usually muted or fragmented and to re-enter relation with its own sensory knowledge. Through sustained somatic attention, their work creates conditions for intensified presence, where both performers and audiences encounter shifts in perception, time, and connection.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Eva Urbanová
Primary place of practice: Vienna, Austria
Nationality: Slovak
Date of Birth: 17.12.1993
@ev_urbanova_
Pronouns: they/she
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Eva Urbanová holds a master’s degree in choreography from Prague’s AMU and studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. Their first independent work, the solo THE ESSENCE (2021), marked an important starting point in their artistic development. The piece was presented at several international festivals, receiving first place at the Gdansk Dance Festival (2022), second place at the Tanz Theater Stuttgart International Competition (2021), and was selected for the Slovak Dance Platform (2023).
Their following work, ANOMALIE (2022), was included in the main program of the Czech Dance Platform in 2023. Their most recent piece, CREATURES OF TOUCH (2025), premiered in March 2025 in Bratislava. The work focuses on heightened sensory experience—especially through touch—proposing a sensitive and embodied way of relating to materiality and connection.
AWARDS
- 1st award at the Gdansk Dance Festival 2022 for the work THE ESSENCE
- 2nd Choreographic Award at the Solo Tanz Theater Stuttgart International Competition 2021 for the work THE ESSENCE
- Public Award at the Solo Tanz Theater Stuttgart International Competition 2021 for the work THE ESSENCE
ARTISTIC EDUCATION
- Master's degree in Choreography, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2020
- Bachelor's degree in Choreography, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2017
- Erasmus Exchange Program, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London, 2015-2016
CHOREOGRAPHIC WORKS
CREATURES OF TOUCH
- Premiered in Telocvičňa, Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, 03/2025
- Movement installation
WATCHOUT TOWER
- Site – specific performance in a public space
- Commission work for Kunsthalle Prague, 08/2023
IDIOSSINCRASIA
- Created during the artistic exchange with Brazilian dancers Gabriela Moriondo and Maicom Souza in Estúdio Victor Córdon (PR) and Colectivo Emarnhado Studios (BR)
- Premiered in Sesc Gloria, Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil, 12/2022
ANOMALIE
- Premiered at Divadlo X10, 10/2022
- Selection of the Czech Dance Platform 2023
- Invited to Kiosk Festival 2023 (SK) and Flora Theatre Festival 2024 (CZ)
THE ESSENCE
- Solo choreography premiered at the Solo Tanz Theater Festival Stuttgart 2021
Awards: 1st place at the Solo Dance Contest at Gdansk Dance Festival 22, 2nd Prize for Choreography + Audience Award at the Solo Tanz Theater Festival Stuttgart 2021
- Invited to the Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival 2023, Bazzar Festival 2023 (CZ), Slovak Dance Platforme 2023 (SK), Flora Theatre Festival 2022 (CZ), Mono Tancz Budapest 2022, and KoresponDance Festival 2021 (CZ)
GALLERY WITHOUT THE BOARDERS
- Invited as a dancer and choreographer to co-create an evening performance at the National Gallery in Prague curated by the SE.S.TA Choreographic Development Center (CZ) and CoreDance (USA)
- Prague 10/2021
SYNC
- Dance film
- Created during the pandemic as a virtual exchange project (BRA/SK/CZ)
- Produced by Bule production
HUNGRY HEARTS
- Master's thesis
- National Gallery in Prague, 09/2020
DANCE is not DEAD!
- Collaboration with the Central European Dance Theatre – Sassi Autumn Dance Week - evening of the young choreographers
- Budapest 11/2019
THE HEAVINESS OF BEING
- Commission work for Bohemia Ballet Dance Company
- Prague 04/2018
SPRING’S ARRIVAL
- Commission work for Prague Dance Conservatoire
- Prague 01/2018
WORK AS A DANCER AND PERFORMER
Harvesting the Wind
- Komařice, Czech Republic, 07/2025
- Choreographer: Aáron Govea
CREATURES OF TOUCH
- Movement installation
- Telocvičňa, Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, 03/2025
- Choreographer: Eva Urbanová
WATCHOUT TOWER
- Site – specific performance in a public space
- Kunsthalle Prague, 08/2023
- Choreographer: Eva Urbanová
The Pool
- National Gallery in Prague, 11/2023
- Director: Tomáš Moravanský (INSTITUTE INSTITUTE)
WRECK/The list of extinct species
- Prague Quadrennial 2023, Tanec Praha Festival 2023, 06/2023
- Choreographer: Pietro Marullo
Intervention is enough evidence. Finally.
- Kunsthalle Prague, 06/2023
- Choreographer: Alex Mirutziu
Did you understand?
- Nu Dance Fest 2023, Kunsthalle Bratislava, 03/2023
- Choreographers: Giulia Cermelli and Tommaso Cavalcanti
Bariolé
- Galéria Umelka, Bratislava, 02/2022
- Choreographer: Jana Tereková
Tour of the Winners of the 25th Internationales Solo Tanz Theater Festival Stuttgart 2021
- Germany (different cities), 11/2021
- Choreographer: Eva Urbanová
Soft Play
- Performance in a public space
- Prague, 10/2021
- Choreographers: Bianca Hisse, Shahrzad Malekian
Collectron
- Digital interactive performance
- KoresponDance Festival (CZ), 07/2021
- Concept: Jana Bitterová, Ian Biscoe
Movement Collaboration on NIVVA Project
- Use of the xses motion capture technology
- Lunchmeat Festival 2020, Prague, 10/2020
Suburbia
- interactive performance in public spaces
- Prague, 06/2020
- Director: Jana Stárková
Whistleblowers
- International Studio Farm in the Cave
- Prague 05/2019
- Director: Viliam Dočolomanský
Adeiu
- dance movie
- Film Academy Prague, 04/2018
- Director: Hasan Can Dagli
- Choreographer: Eva Urbanová
... (and other relevant experiences)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Eva develops and leads original workshop formats grounded in their choreographic practice, presented internationally across Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Brazil. These workshops have been realized in collaboration with festivals, independent platforms, and conservatory-level institutions, including CO.LABS (Brno, Czech Republic), Divadlo Štúdio tanca (Banská Bystrica, Slovakia), Telocvičňa – Residential Space for Dance (Bratislava, Slovakia), Dance Conservatory Liptovský Hrádok, Kiosk Festival (Žilina, Slovakia), Colectivo Emaranhado Studio (Vitória, Brazil), and the Janáček Conservatory in Ostrava.
SCHOLARSHIPS
2025
Wiener Festwochen – In the Field Scholarship – mentored by Isabel Lewis - granted for participation in the 10‑day In the Field programme (30 May – 8 June 2025), an international scholarship initiative supporting emerging artists and cultural workers engaged at the interface of art and community participation
2024
Tanzquartier Wien Scholarship – granted to support professional development in contemporary dance
Slovak Arts Council Scholarship – granted for movement research and development of the choreographic work Next New Collection
2023
Slovak Arts Council Scholarship – granted for research on the project Hitting the Sweet Spot, focusing on the use of altered states of consciousness and heightened sensory experience in dance practice
2022
Slovak Arts Council Scholarship – granted for the research project Body Zero, exploring the personal and physical history of the body through movement
2021
Slovak Arts Council Scholarship – granted for choreographic research on the project With Light into the Darkness and Further, which uses the metaphors of light and darkness to explore emotional depth and the dynamics of internal transformation
OVERVIEW OF THE RESIDENCY PROGRAMS PARTICIPATED IN RECENT YEARS
2026
January–February — Tender Steps Residency, Raw Matters, Vienna — Creation of INVERSENSA
2025
August – P.A.R.T.S Summer Residencies (Brussels, Belgium) – movement reserach of the work It’s The Way You Walk It
July – TURBO Residency - Impulstanz Festival (Vienna, Austria) – mentored by Sara Shelton Mann, Angélique Willkie, and Sofia Nieses – creation of work INVERSENSA
June – theatre brut (Vienna, Austria) – creation of the work INVERSENSA
April – Bears in the Park (Vienna, Austria) – creation of the work It’s the Way You Walk It
January – HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts (Dresden, Germany) – creation of the work CREATURES OF TOUCH
2024
September – Plam Yard (Malovice, Czech Republic) – creation of the work CREATURES OF TOUCH
August – Bears in the Park (Vienna, Austria) – creation of the work CREATURES OF TOUCH
April – Telocvičňa (Bratislava, Slovakia) – creation of the work CREATURES OF TOUCH
January – Jobel Art for Earth (Sabina, Italy) – creation of the work CREATURES OF TOUCH
2023
August 2023 – February 2024 (in several time blocks) – Theatre Malý Berlín (Trnava, Slovakia), Studio Alegria (Trnava, Slovakia) & Telocvičňa (Bratislava, Slovakia) – movement research project Hitting the Sweet Spot
2022
November – Coletivo Emaranhado Studios (Vitória, Brazil) – creation of the production Idiossincrasia
October – KC Vozovna (Prague, Czech Republic) – creation of the work ANOMALIE
June – Telocvičňa (Bratislava, Slovakia) – movement research of the project Body Zero
May – Estúdios Victor Córdon (Lisbon, Portugal) – creation of the work ANOMALIE
March – Rezi.dance v lese (Komařice, Czech Republic) – creation of the work ANOMALIE within the ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE 2022 program
March – Center for Choreographic Development SE.S.TA (Žďár nad Sázavou, Czech Republic) – creation of the work ANOMALIE
COUCHING RESIDENCIES FOR THE CHOREOGRAPHERS
Couching residency for choreographers - SE.S.TA, Prague 2021, coached by Alice Chauchat
Couching residency for choreographers - SE.S.TA, Prague 2020, coached by Kathy Casey
Couching residency for choreographers - SE.S.TA, Prague 2017, coched by Jean-Christophe Paré
SELECTED WORKSHOP/MASTERCLASSES
- Said Ghrabi – Blindance: Jump with me into darkness – TQW, Vienna 2026
- Guttural Voices and Other Sounding Bodies - Stina Fors - Tanzquartier, Vienna 2025
- Choreo-Constellations - Liv Schellander and Alexandra Wingate/Animalarium Danc - WUK, Vienna 2025 COLLECTIVE
- Dramaturgy Blind Inclusive - Fia Neises and Liv Schellander - Brut, Vienna 2025
- Adrien Hód/Hodworks: Inclusive vibe - WUK, Vienna 2024
- Jess Curtis-Accessibility in Arts, Telocvičňa, Bratislava 2023
- Benoîte Lachambre – ImpulsTanz 2023
- Keith Hennessy – Bratislava 2023
- Maria F. Scaroni – Bratislava 2023
- Adrien Hód – B12 Festival, Berlin 2022
- Hannes Langolf – Share workshop, Berlin 2022
- Theatre Continuo Summer Residency, Czech Republic 2020
- Butoh workshop by Tiziana Longo, Berlin 2020
- Emanuel Gat Intensive, Rome 2019
- Tina Afiyan Breiova – contemporary dance, Prague 2019
- Stories in Movement – dance film workshop, Bucharest 2018
- Gaga Intensive, Tel Aviv 2018
- Martin Kilvády – contemporary dance, Prague 2018
MOVEMENT BACKGROUND
- Rhythmic gymnastics – 1st place in the Junior B category at the Slovak Championship
LANGUAGES
- English – Fluent
- Japanese – Intermediate
- Czech – Fluent
- Slovak – Native Speaker