Title: I Am Swimming With Zaza
Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/jRWgwCJVu6A?si=LjrLhycA521o6-Ov&t=1129
Duration: 72 min
Date: 2025
Medium: Live performance, dance, costume
Description: Zaza explores an ongoing intimacy between fact and fantastical choreographed as a visual meditation and experimental runway inspired by real and imagined spirit traditions. Zaza opens/closes with Villa alone, blindfolded, summoning an ensemble of dancers cloaked in black, dropping stones and hissing breath punctuate ritual gestures and a charged duet.
Cue Point: 18:50
Title: Estoy Nadando Con Zaza
Link: https://vimeo.com/1040110495?fl=ip&fe=ec Password: inthesundancing
Duration: 3 min 37 sec
Date: 2024
Medium: performance, dance, 16mm film, video
Description: What can I do to honor you, now that it is too late? You, and the You that I come from, and the You that occasionally stands in for me. Coco Villa presents Estoy Nadando con Zaza, an ongoing intimacy between fact and the fantastical, real and imagined.
Estoy Nadando con Zaza is a year-long commission by Mono No Aware in collaboration with Westlab + Gallery. This commission invited six analog photographers and artists who have previously exhibited work at Westlab + Gallery to extend their art practice into the realm of moving image, making films on 16mm for the first time set to premiere at Center for Performance Research (December 2024).
Mono No Aware, in tandem with Westlab + Gallery, provided each commissioned artist with workshops introducing the Bolex Rex 5 Camera, support in developing film concepts, camera, film and equipment for shoot days, as well as a workshop on the 4-plate Steenbeck flatbed editing table for all of the artists to edit their projects by hand.
Title: El Bosque Me Llevará (Self Portrait No.1)
Medium: 120mm Photography, NA Dimension
Date: 2023
Description: El Bosque Me Llevará translates to “the forest will take me”. This self portrait is the recreation of my live durational performance and dance, set in a natural landscape. Again, exploring the trickster/twins or spirit double and connection to earth. The movements are slow moving sculptural gestures and repetitive rhythmic shapes. Concept, costumes, choreography and photography by Coco Villa. Performed by Tears and Coco Villa.
Title: El Bosque Me Llevará (Self Portrait No.2)
Medium: 120mm Photography, NA Dimension
Date: 2023
Description: El Bosque Me Llevará translates to “the forest will take me”. This self portrait is the recreation of my live durational performance and dance, set in a natural landscape. Again, exploring the trickster/twins or spirit double and connection to earth. The movements are slow moving sculptural gestures and repetitive rhythmic shapes. Concept, costumes, choreography and photography by Coco Villa. Performed by Tears and Coco Villa.
Watch Video Here.
Title: Movement Study No. 4 (aboutme)
Medium: performance, video
Duration: Video - 3 min 25 sec. Improvisation - 1 hour
Date: 2025
Description: a small excerpt of my daily solo movement practice. I try to improvise for one continuous hour, accepting whatever state of mind and physical energy I may have in any location. I hope to capture some magical moments on video. I use this time to release, experiment, study, and be silly. I almost always come out inspired, and if not that then refreshed. Improvisation is integral to my process and the seed in creating choreography
Title: Tita's (L)eggs Study No.6
Medium: performance, eggs, 35mm photography
Date: 2022
Description: Tita's (L)eggs Study No.6 is a durational performance and a collection of 35mm black and white photographs. Reimagined for the camera, this work brings the ground as a point of focus. They are playful entrances to how I deal with simple problems such as a dance in order to crack eggs or making a ceramic slide to deliver eggs into a vessel.
Title: Tita's (L)eggs Study No.7
Medium: performance, egg, ceramics, 35mm photography
Date: 2023
Description: Tita's (L)eggs Study No.7 is durational performance and a collection of 35mm photographs. They are playful entrances to how I deal with simple problems such as making a ceramic slide to deliver eggs into a vessel. This represents my work as I create sculptures that often double as props in films, photographs, and performances.
Title: Tita's (L)eggs Study No.8
Medium: performance, egg, ceramics, 35mm photography
Date: 2024
Description: This is a 35mm self portrait documenting my experimentation and research with alternative objects for shoes. This is when I established an iteration of the stacked stones to be the uniform sculpture and wearable prop for Delicate Army.
Title: Almohadas de Floración
Medium: performance, ceramics, Kanekolan hair, human hair, costume, 16mm photography
Date: 2023
Note: The act of documenting what I’m doing is just as important from the performance itself. A theatrical recreation of a ritual photographed for the sake of archiving and embracing new narratives. My photography is inspired by black and white documentation of performances between the 70s and 90s in New York City and instructional dance prompts.
Watch Video Here.
Title: Costume Movement Study (2020-2024)
Link: https://vimeo.com/1015059276?fl=pl&fe=sh
Duration: 3 min 19 sec
Medium: performance, ceramics, Kanekolan hair, human hair, silk, costume, video
Date: 2020-2024
Description: This work sample is a compilation of behind-the-scenes footage. The clips display casual motion exploring the garments and props made for performances and photographs. Garments, textiles, and props designed and crafted by Coco Villa. Movement study performed by Coco Villa.