Sophie.
“We all need someone to look at us. we can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under. the first category longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public. the second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes. they are the tireless hosts of cocktail parties and dinners. they are happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. this happens to nearly all of them sooner or later. people in the second category, on the other hand, can always come up with the eyes they need. then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love. their situation is as dangerous as the situation of people in the first category. one day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark. and finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. they are the dreamers.”
― Milan Kundera
photo by Raymond Rudolph, 2021
How it began and how it is.
Sophie Ortiz is a performance artist and dancer, utilizing multiple artistic disciplines in their work. She is a 3rd generation San Franciscan, who grew up in Calle 24, around the Bay Area arts community, attending Ruth Asawa School of the Arts for High School, and currently obtaining their BFA in the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College. Her work mostly explores growing up in digital America from an ethnographic perspective, utilizing movement as a medium to perform the multiple aspects of irony that are present in society. She plans to keep collaborating with the open minded.
Sophie grew up attending shows, festivals, and events in the art scene, eventually pursuing training in various forms such as contemporary dance, theater, ballet, improvisation, choir, musical theater, visual arts, speech & debate, sculpture, ballroom dance, tap dance, classical Chinese dance, competitive cheerleading, gymnastics, and many more. Eventually pursuing conservatory dance training in both high school and college, they have resorted back to their anti-disciplinary roots, a term coined by one of their peers. Upon entering many coteries of disciplines their practice performs life in the abstract body.
Performance artist.
Art by Sophie Ortiz
About Me.