Biography

Marcos Duran, MFA (he, him), is a round one “Far South/Border North” grant recipient sponsored by the California Arts Council with the Conrad Prebys Foundation. His evening length dance production, “Dancing With Dignity,” premiered at the San Diego City Heights Performance Annex in May 2024. It was inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Alliance San Diego’s “Start With Dignity” campaign.

Marcos is a Dance Lecturer at UC San Diego and San Diego City College. He has been selected to join the UC San Diego Health: Sanford Compassionate Communication Academy Fellowship cohort of 2024. He will serve as one of the few artists in a cohort of researchers creating new curriculum for medical professionals.

In 2022 he toured his evening length solo, “Shapeshifter,” commissioned by Strand Theater for a debut at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. His signature solo “Exit to Wonderland” was invited to Visionary Dance Theater’s Zen Festival in San Diego, as well as in San Diego Dance Theater’s WOW Festival show. In 2021 he was commissioned by Malashock Dance to make a new work, “Neck, Knife,” for a production at the San Diego Mingei Museum. His art writing was published in HereIn, a journal for San Diego’s artists and writers, in addition to being featured in SD Voyager Magazine.

Marcos is also a dance filmmaker. His recently produced and directed dance films, “Best to Move” and “Guardians of Water,” are pending entry into international film festivals. In 2021 his short film, “Minced,” won the Best Performances award at the LA Experimental Film Festival after premiering in Disco Riot’s “A Year of DisDance.”

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Marcos was in the final days of completing his MFA in Dance Theatre at UC San Diego. He took refuge in creating “Acts of Togetherness-19,” a social media series that cultivated international, digital performance collaborations.

As a graduate recipient of the San Diego Fellowship at UC San Diego, he made three works between 2017-2020 that culminated 15 years of choreography. “Heel, Skull” (60 min), “The Rules of the Game” (25 min), and his thesis work, “The Underground” (95 min), all premiered at La Jolla Playhouse theater district. They exhibited accounts of social choreography, craniosacral audience integration, and transdisciplinary collaborations between visual arts, music, technology, and theater.

A New Yorker from 2008-2017, he directed and performed in Marcos Duran Performance Group. He was invited to share his work at Movement Research at The Judson Church, Dixon Place, La MaMa Experimental Theater, Theater for the New City, 92nd St Y, Center for Performance Research, Triskelion Arts, and Green Space among many other site specific spaces. From 2005-2008, he created and shared work in Santa Barbara, San Diego, and San Francisco.

As a performer from 2000-2024, Marcos learned from working with Daniel Charon, Liam Clancy, Nancy Colahan, Kellye Dodd, Faye Driscoll, Erica Essner, Eric Geiger, Meredith Glisson, Valerie Houston, Jenni Hong, Jean Isaacs, Risa Jaroslow, Keith Johnson, Misa Kelly, Eun Hee Lee, John Malashock, Bronwen MacArthur, Dance Monks, Stephanie Nugent, Jody Oberfelder, Christy O'Harris, Jerry Pearson, Christopher Pilafian, Tonia Shimin, Yolande Snaith, Khamla Somphanh, Sasha Spielvogel, Terry Wilson, Bill Young, and the master works of Jose Limon as directed by Alice Condodina and Gary Masters. He has performed at national venues such as Jacobs Pillow MA, The Kitchen NYC, Diavolo LA, and Counter Pulse SF. He has toured internationally to South Korea, China, Mexico, Wales, and Ireland.