Pelé Sanchez Tormes

Pelé’s (they/she) artistic practice combines performing arts, music, care work and improvisation as strategies for regenerating bodies traversed by the catastrophe of capitalism. Their work departs from the body as tool, antennae and territory; and from the subjectivity of a voluptuous, queer, non-binary person from a Caribbean colony. Pelé’s stage work began in 1998 with the political guerrilla theater collective Jóvenes del ‘98, performing throughout Puerto Rico and Latin America, and training with Augusto Boal and peruvian ensemble Yuyachkani. Their practice was further influenced by experimental performance pioneers Viveca Vázquez and Teresa Hernández, with whom they have collaborated recurrently as performer and producer since 2002. Since 2013, Pelé has been a member of Caborca, a bilingual theater company based in New York. From 2016 to 2021, they also performed with indie rock band Pinc Louds, playing important venues in NYC and touring the US and Chile. The pandemic forced Pelé to return to Puerto Rico, and since 2020 they have collaborated with artist Sofía Gallisá, improviser Karen Langevin and performance scholar Pepe Álvarez, as well as codirecting Archivo Santaliz with Kairiana Núñez, a one-woman show about art and precariousness. They currently have a massage practice and study astrology.