Ana Kavalis is an interdisciplinary artist born in Havana, Cuba, and based in Berlin since 2004. Her artistic path is shaped by migration: from Cuba to Uruguay in 1996, where she graduated in Acting from the E.M.A.D. Margarita Xirgú in Montevideo, to Brazil, where she trained at *CPTzinho* under the direction of Antunes Filho in São Paulo. Between 2015 and 2018, she lived and worked between France and Brazil. She moves fluidly between Spanish, German, English, French, and Portuguese.
Her relationship with movement began in early childhood—as a space of connection, expression, freedom, joy, and self-healing. Today, her work unfolds at the intersection of butoh, physical theatre, performance, and somatic voice and body practices. Improvisation is at the heart of her artistic language: a tool for listening, transforming, and composing in real time. She creates and performs in theatres as well as in unconventional and site-specific spaces, weaving together text, voice, and movement. Her texts emerge from encounters between literature and embodied improvisation.
At the core of her work lies an ongoing exploration of migration, identity, and gender from a feminist and decolonial perspective. She is drawn to the continuous de/construction of identity and understands migration as both fracture and force—challenging and deeply empowering. Her practice expands the notion of embodiment into breath, voice, sound, imagination, emotion, and objects. The stage becomes a place of belonging—a space where she can dwell, transform, and return. Sharing her work, whether performing or teaching, is for her a transformative act of exchange.
As a freelance artist, she has collaborated with choreographers, musicians, directors, and performers in Berlin and internationally, including Lemi Ponifasio, Bouchra Ouizguen, Ephia Gburek, Jeff Gburek, Diana Veneziano, Gabi Hift, Alexander Carrillo, Darinka Ezeta, Michael Vorfeld, Lottie Sebes, and Neslihan Schmidt, among others.
Alongside her performance work, Ana Kavalis works as an actress in film and television. She has appeared in German and international productions across cinema and TV formats. In addition, she is active as a dubbing artist, contributing her voice to international productions, including for streaming platforms such as Netflix.
Since 2019, she has been a member of the Psychedelic Choir, a feminist vocal collective creating sonic landscapes and site-responsive performances in Berlin and beyond. In the same year, she began developing her own body–voice practice, Resonant Body®, which she teaches in various studios across Berlin.
In 2021, she received a research grant from DISTANZEN Dachverband Tanz Deutschland for her project Urbane Hexen: Widerständige Frauen in Berlin. In 2022, she co-founded the Ore Ama Collective with dancer Maddi Fuente Ubani. Their collaborative work with international musicians has led to interdisciplinary performances such as Espíritas Migrantas, Monster Me, Subterráneas, and Homes & Songs.
Ana recently completed the Somatic Voice program at the Somatische Akademie Berlin. Alongside her artistic practice, she teaches creative dance and theatre in Spanish for children. She is also the mother of a 12-year-old child.