Sonia Sanoja
(Caracas, Venezuela, 1932 – 2017). Dancer, teacher, choreographer and poet. Pioneer of the dance activity in her country in the 1940s, particularly in contemporary dance. In her outstanding teaching work, developed since the seventies, Sanoja founded and directed the Centro Coreográfico de la Universidad Simón Bolívar, attached to the Dirección de Extensión Universitaria de esa casa de estudios, the Cátedra de Danza del Colegio Universitario Francisco de Miranda and the Taller de Danza del Instituto Politécnico Universitario "Luis Caballero Mejías". During the following decades she carried out formative work at the Instituto Superior de Danza and the Instituto Universitario de Danza, of which she was founding professor, honorary member of its Board of Directors and creator of the chair of Social History of Art; as well as the course La Danza y la Palabra within the extension program Las Fronteras del Cuerpo, belonging to the postgraduate area of that institution. In parallel to his work as an institution creator, Sanoja's artistic work also developed prosperously, expanding into the field of poetry and literature and linking up with the great Venezuelan thinkers of the time through collaborative projects. Among these, one of his most distinguished performances takes shape in Coregego (1969), considered an authentic event within the national visual arts.
