About

Urška Centa is a dancer, choreographer, music artist, performer, and producer working at the intersection of contemporary dance, flamenco, jazz, and improvisation. Her artistic practice originates in the body as a primary rhythmic and sonic instrument, through which she articulates a distinct and recognizable poetics.

Her authored works are defined by a strong interdisciplinary framework, opening flamenco to dialogue through a cross-genre approach, a contemporary performative context, and an ongoing investigation of sound as a choreographic principle. She creates projects that move fluidly between concert, theatre, and performance, generating tension between individual expression and collective structure.

• Anthology of a scream III: Afterparty (NEST Collective; NEST, 2025, Cirkulacija2)
• Anthology of a scream II: Twister (NEST Collective; NEST, 2025, Galerija Vžigalica)
• Anthology of a scream I: Surprise bag (NEST Collective; NEST, 2024, Pionirski dom)
• There, in the garden (Urška Centa, Domen Novak; NEST, 2024, Cankarjev dom)
• The garden (Urška Centa; FIACmx, 2023, León)
• Miniature no. 9 (Urška Centa; NEST, 2023, Atrij ZRC)
• On the verge of the invisible (Jure Pukl, Urška Centa; NEST, 2022, Cankarjev dom)
• Sinsonte, a song left forgotten in the throat (Urška Centa, Marco de Ana; Flota & Cankarjev dom, 2022)
• Sounds under the skin (Kristýna Peldová, Urška Centa, Anja Möderndorfer, Sara Janašković; NEST, 2021, Španski borci)
• Stories of birds (Marco de Ana, Urška Centa; NEST, 2021, Cankarjev dom)
• ENO – ONE (Urška Centa; Flota, 2020, Cankarjev dom)
• One ballad, please! (Zvezdana Novaković, Urška Centa; 2019, Pocket Teater)
• Deblas / Goddesses (Urška Centa, Katja Šulc, Kukla; CoraViento, 2018, Kino Šiška)
• Sacai (Urška Centa; CoraViento, 2016, Kino Šiška)

In 2026, she premiered Flamenco Project in collaboration with the RTV Slovenija Big Band for the Ars and Drama program at the Grand Stage of SNT Drama Ljubljana, under the direction of the conductor Lojze Krajnčan. Between 2017 and 2025, she developed a series of original works within the contemporary flamenco series Noches de Tablao.

In recent seasons, she has created a range of collaborations: with Raynald Colom on Constellations (NEST, 2025, Linhart Hall – Cankarjev dom), with a group of dancers and musician under the direction of Sara Janašković on Constellations (NEST, 2025, Španski borci), with Guillermo McGill on La danza de un ángel (NEST, 2025, Štih Hall – Cankarjev dom; Sala Villanos – Madrid), with Jošt Lampret on NOMAD (NEST, 2024, Klub – Cankarjev dom), and with Izidor Erazem Grafenauer on Grafenauer Flamenco Project: Plaza Vacía (NEST, 2022, Atrij ZRC), among others.

She has choreographed projects such as Fragile in collaboration with Draž knitwear (Ljubljana Fashion Week, 2025), the dance–music performance Where the wind takes us (NEST, 2025, KD Franc Bernik), the fashion installation History of thread in collaboration with Draž knitwear and Domen Novak (Festival Velenje, 2024), the dance–music performance Open windows (NEST, 2024, KD Franc Bernik), and the dance–music suite Letting go of the memories (NEST, 2023, Ljubljana Puppet Theatre), among others. She regularly appears as a soloist or co-author at national and state ceremonies.

She has performed in productions such as Annenlinie (Mateja Bučar; steirischerherbst’23, 2023, Graz) and Red forest (Leja Jurišić; Pekinpah, 2022, Stara Elektrarna).

Internationally active, she has performed at major European and global venues. In Mexico, she has appeared at Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris, Teatro Juárez Guanajuato, Conjunto Santander de Artes Escénicas, and Teatro del Bicentenario León, among others. Her work has also been presented at EXPO 2020 Dubai (Slovenian Pavilion), CerModern (Turkey), Teatro Verdi (Italy), SARTR (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and HNK Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Her performances and stage works have been presented at major cultural venues and leading festivals, including Cankarjev dom and the Bi flamenko biennial in Ljubljana, the Maribor Theatre Festival, SNT Drama Ljubljana, Jazz Festival Ljubljana, Druga godba, Festival Lent, Festival Arsana, Sala Villanos in Madrid, and the FIAC International Contemporary Arts Festival in León in Mexico, among others.

As a musician, she is the founder and principal author of Sentido project band, performing as vocalist, dancer, and songwriter. In 2024, the ensemble released the album ECOS (Celinka) and toured Slovenia and Mexico, receiving international recognitions from Instituto Cultural de Celaya and Instituto Zacatecano de Cultura “Ramón López Velarde.” She is currently preparing an original album with composer and double bassist Robert Jukič, contributing as songwriter and vocalist.

She has collaborated with distinguished musicians including Jure Pukl, Raynald Colom, Guillermo McGill, Matija Krečič, Marko Črnčec, Nino Mureškić, Tadej Kampl, Izidor Erazem Grafenauer and Miron Rafajlović, and with numerous creators in the performing arts. In 2023, she received a working scholarship from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

Her collaborators in the field of dance include Kristýna Peldová, Tina Habun, Sara Janašković, Andreja Rauch Podrzavnik, Žigan Krajnčan, Milan Tomášik, Marco de Ana, Lara Matea Ivančič, Alja Branc, Gašper Kunšek, Veronika Valdés, Leja Jurišić, among others.

PRODUCER

She is co-founder, director, and artistic leader of NEST Institute, and curator of the contemporary flamenco cycle Noches de Tablao, developed in collaboration with Cankarjev dom as a platform for new international projects. As a producer and artistic director, she systematically builds frameworks for interdisciplinary practice and long-term collaboration.

PEDAGOGUE

As an educator, she has taught at the Royal Conservatory The Hague in Netherlands, Teatro del Bicentenario and Instituto Cultural de Cancún in Mexico, A.S.D. Viento Flamenco in Italy, and the JSKD Summer and Winter Dance School in Slovenia, among others.

STUDIES

She graduated in Contemporary Dance and Choreography from the Alma Mater Europaea Academy of Dance in Ljubljana. She further trained in Madrid at Centro de Baile Flamenco y Danza Española Amor de Dios and Centro de Estudios Superiores del Flamenco UFlamenco, and continues advanced studies in contemporary dance, flamenco, and composition with internationally renowned artists (Merche Esmeralda, María Juncal, Farruquito, Lily Kiara, Milan Tomášik, Agostina D’Alessandro, among others).