" Theatre is for me life from a certain perspective, emerging through the deepest part of yourself, with others, and for others. It is believing in further possible realities and manifesting them, through presence."
Erika Webe, director - choreographer, actress, anthropologist, clown, screenwriter and poet.
She defines herself as a transdisciplinary artist deeply committed to sensory experiences and marginalized communities, she firmly believes in art as a force for transformation.
Born in 1990, Erika was 12 when her grandmother secretly took her to theatre workshops in the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she grew up.
Since then, Erika has embarked on a journey that continues in France, where she lives since 2018. She has collaborated and studied in more than ten countries between South America and Europe, be part of twelve companies, forty pieces and performances, recently five cinematographic projects and learnt 7 languages. Along the way, she realized that the theatre is her home, and with the collaboration of extraordinary partners, she keeps creating contemporary poetry.
A life story :
Erika was born in 1990. She was 12 years old when her grandmother secretly took her to the theatre workshops at the town hall of Lomas de Zamora, where she grew up in the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her parents told her that theatre was something dangerous, but she was certain that she wanted to do this with her life. At 15, Erika joined her first company at the Theatre Nobles Bestias under the direction of Alfredo Badalamenti. Since then, she has studied and practiced theatre.
In 2008, she studied dramaturgy with Cecilia Propato, and in 2009, she moved to France to study social and cultural anthropology at the Lumière Lyon 2 University, where she also joined Maude Fouassier’s company Muses en Abyme. After earning her degree, she trained in circus arts under the circus tent of Accrofolies school in Lescar, Aquitaine, specializing in aerial silks and contortion with Eléonore Bruel. The following year, she trained in vertical rope in Buenos Aires with Ile Munay, Victoria Marecos... She also delved into street arts and learned juggling, unicycling, and clarinet. She toured in Argentina, Brazil, and Europe with the De Berenis Circus company, and performing her first clown solos, such as Caracola, a character full of humanity, funny and tender.
From 2014 to 2017, she studied in Buenos Aires physical theater (Jacques Lecoq technique), clowning (with Lucia Schnicotsky), contemporary dance, jazz, rock’n’roll, and tango, and she started learning corporeal mime (with El Chuma, a student of Angel Elizondo).
Back in Europe, she met Jean Méningue in Italy, with whom she worked on the play PRR!. She then studied in Montreuil at the International School of Dramatic Corporeal Mime (EIMCD) as a mime artist and teacher (with Ivan Bacciochi, a student of Etienne Decroux) and with Darrel Davis in classical dance. She then collaborated with contemporary gestural theater companies in Paris: Cie Elizabeth Czercuk, Fer à Coudre...
At the same time, Erika met Isabel Lagos in Gothenburg, Sweden, who invited her as a collaborator and actress in her artistic projects in Sweden and Europe: Libertalia (Creative Europe), Ship of Fools (with Clown Spirit and Panjalscenstudio), Amor Fati (a performance on Parkinson’s, with Joel Heirås)... and the film Pirates of the Future (with GAO-Gothenburg Alternative Orchestra), after which they co-wrote the feature film THEATRE STATE and co-directed two short films—Résonance and Silent Echoes—within the project Cultural Weavings, where Erika was also a choreographer and actress.
In 2019, she founded the company Espuma to develop her own projects.
Erika defines herself as a transdisciplinary artist in perpetual research. She places great importance on sensory exploration and marginalized sectors, and she deeply believes in art as a means of transformation.