Zoia Cisneros
School of Dance
Email Address: zncisneros@uncg.edu
Biography
Zoia Cisneros is a mother, registered nurse, and Lecturer in the School of Dance at UNCG. She is a performer, educator, and researcher whose artistic journey began in the barrios of Caracas, Venezuela. As a child, she moved alongside her family, watching her mother teach creative dance on rooftops – an early immersion in embodied storytelling and community ritual. Her formal training began at age six, studying Jazz and traditional Venezuelan dances with Raquel Díaz and later with Yolanda Moreno’s renowned school and company, Danzas Venezuela, which also integrated Ballet and Flamenco.
After immigrating to the United States in 1993, Cisneros expanded her dance practice to include Hip Hop, West African, Afro-Cuban, Capoeira, Contemporary, House, Salsa, Samba, and other Afro-Caribbean forms from Haiti and Martinique. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and French at Bates College, where she deepened her training through the Bates Dance Festival and focused her academic work on Francophone cultural studies.
While living in Philadelphia, Cisneros trained, toured, and performed with Tania Isaac Dance, contributing to evening-length works that explored identity, motherhood, and belonging through a visceral, interdisciplinary lens. She also performed with Kulu Mele African American Drum and Dance Ensemble, directed by Mama Dottie Wilkie, where she immersed herself in diasporic traditions rooted in African and Afro-Caribbean heritage.
During her time in Belize, Cisneros taught at the elementary school level and founded an after-school dance program that empowered young students through movement and creativity. Her choreographic works were featured at the annual Youth Arts Festival in Belize City, celebrating local talent and cultural expression.
Her research and performance work have taken her across Venezuela, Trinidad, Martinique, The Gambia, Senegal, and Australia, exploring movement as both a cultural archive and a personal practice of resistance. In 2022, she traveled to Brazil to perform as a passista (Samba dancer) in Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome during Carnaval – a culmination of immersive Samba training she pursued during the COVID-19 pandemic via cyberspace. This experience celebrated the power of virtual connection, diasporic rhythm, and embodied joy across borders.
Completing her MFA in Choreography at UNCG in 2025 marked a transformative chapter in her artistic and academic life. Her thesis, Cuando las Memorias Sangran ~ When Memories Bleed, explored the intersections of memory, identity, and community through collaborative choreographic practice. Drawing upon feminist and decolonial methodologies, the work integrated Afro-Venezuelan rhythms, improvisation, jazz, and contemporary dance to honor the multiplicity of narratives embodied within her and her collaborators.
Cisneros now teaches DCE 204: African Dance and Music in collaboration with musician and music director Atiba Rorie. Her teaching is rooted in musicality, cultural inquiry, and embodied learning, fostering dynamic and inclusive spaces for transformation, storytelling, and resistance.