Personal Input:
Choreography is a capturing apparatus, a frame for my ideas and my lived existence as a mother, artist, and immigrant transplanted from South America to the USA. Choreography tries to capture the essence of my existence.
I became an American citizen in 2018. I am a mother of a new generation of American citizens. As a mother, my job is to nurture, protect, and guide. I offer and reinforce a critical thinking education through the arts and through Dance.
As a citizen of the world, my body is a border, where the inside and outside worlds collide.

Discrimination & privilege. 
As a mother and artist in my NYC art cocoon, sometimes I feel invisible. Who cares about a woman, a worker, an artist?  Who is supporting me in my daily job to nurture, protect and guide? Why is my voice not heard? 

My daily struggle is to construct a family, construct myself, and contribute to society as a pedagogue, artist, panelist, board member, etc., in the NYC art community. I have been creating in New York for the last 16 years, and the arc of my career includes 33 years of commitment internationally.

PAST EVENTS 2023

  • Performance & Installation "Listen to Your Mother" (3rd work-in-progress) at 2023 Snug Harbor Dance Festival on Sunday, Sept 24, 2023 at 5pm
    at Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden (1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301)

  • IN-PERSON: Wednesday, May 31st at 6:30pm (EDT) : Carroll Hall Present An Evening with Artist Anabella Lenzu: Dance Film Screening and Conversation about Motherhood and Art Making at Carroll Hall

    The event will highlight four award-winning short dance films and an intimate conversation with choreographer and filmmaker Anabella Lenzu.

    How do we navigate the unbalanced life of a parent/art-maker? 

    What makes a good mother? What makes a good artist?

    The dance films reflect Anabella Lenzu’s experience as an artist living in New York and come from a deep examination of her motivations as a woman, mother, and immigrant.

  • ONLINE Saturday, April 29th at 1pm (NYC time): Studies Project: "Redefining our place as Mothers, Artists, and Immigrants in the NYC landscape" as part of Movement Research

    All Studies Project events are free and open to the public

    Dancers, choreographers, and dance writers discuss how they navigated the unbalanced life of a parent/art-maker. What makes a good mother? What makes a good artist? For those women who dedicate themselves daily to nurture, protect, and guide others - is there any support for them? 

    This virtual encounter brings together a group of interdisciplinary artists in the dance field who are also parents, to have a conversation about how the field can provide support through resource-sharing, and create supportive environments in order to foster dialogues, appreciation, and social support. Organized & Moderated by Anabella Lenzu

    With Irene Hutman Monti, Christine Jowers, Lulu Lolo, Gabriela Ammann & Ara Fitzgerald.

  • On Monday, March 6th, 2023 @ 7PM (NYC time) "Listen to Your Mother" (2nd work-in-progress) at Movement Research at the Judson Church (55 Washington Square, New York, NY 10012).

  • On Jan. 17th & 18th 2023: "Listen to Your Mother" First work-in-progress at OUT Front Fest at The LGBT Center in NYC.


  • Read this review by Tom Phillips at Occupy the Arts

    https://occupythearts.blogspot.com/2023/01/listen-to-your-mother.html

Support: "Listen to Your Mother" was developed in part during the 2022 Parent Artist in Residency at Movement Research and Artist-in-Residency at Carroll Hall, Brooklyn, as well with grants from The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, The Vermont Community Foundation and The Harkness Foundation for Dance.

Interviews: During 2022-2024, I have interviewed mothers who are also dancers/choreographers that live and work in NYC. For clarification, the common thread is really that all are mothers and choreographers, not that all my guests are immigrants. 

Christine Jowers, Vicky Shick, Sara Rudner, Ara Fitzgerald, Charmaine Warren, Terese Capuccilli, Marya Ursin, Elizabeth Mcpherson, Cara Hagan, Jody Sperling, Tanya Calamoneri, Jody Oberfelder, Gabriela Ammann, Irene Hutman-Monti, Alice Farley, Andrea Miller, Catherine Tharin, Justine Lynch, Violeta Velez, Jennifer Wright Cook, Kristin Marting, LuLu LoLo, Anna Azrieli, Mary Seidman, Heather Robles, Dian Dong, Dyane Harvey-Salaam, Catherine Gallant & Mor Mendel.