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Cat Paz Jimenez

The Vienna based artist was born in the Philippines as Paz Katrina Jimenez and moved to Vienna with her family at the age of 4. Growing up and shifting between two cultures, her early childhood already reflected what later on would become a personal constant conflict as well as a source of inspiration for her work: the issue of identity and “being in-between” cultures.

In summer 2008 Cat tapped into Hip Hop Dance but yet was mainly focused on pursuing her career in the worlds of design and fashion. After finishing Fashion School Herbststraße (Vienna) in 2011, Cat gained practical experience through participating in projects for various companies and festivals like the “Vienna Fashion Week”, ORF, Lifeball and many more. Her first fashionfilm has been screened during the “11th Festival For Fashion and Photography” in Vienna.

In 2012 she set aside visual and applied arts to dedicate her energy and time fully in the dance culture of House and Hip Hop. Travelling to New York, California, Tokyo, Dubai, Turkey, Philippines and around Europe for training, international battle participations, commercial work and upgrading her knowledge kept her busy at that period of time.

Since 2015 she is mainly in theater and has worked with directors like Elio Gervasi, Valentin Alfery Knuffelbunt, Akos Hargitay, Cornelia Böhnisch and many more… and has also been performing on stages for the Ars Electronica, sound:frame and the donaufestival.

Finding herself again between the culture of Hip Hop, contemporary art and her visual background, Cat merged her experiences, redefining her own perception of identity and performance. During her Tanz*Hotel residency in 2016 she created her first Solo dance piece called “Pi”. In the same year she could continue her research during the TURBO Impulstanz residency. One year later Cat has been chosen as “Stadttänzerin 2017” in Klagenfurt as residency artist and scholarship holder and additionally got selected for the danceWEB scholarship program by Impulstanz.  A personal achievement that also proved her right in believing and trusting in the art forms of Hip Hop.

In a collaboration with the visual artist Maiko Sakurai Karner, Cat Jimenez was working on her second performance in the same year. An interdisciplinary work discovering the meaning of “being in-between cultures” as East Asian women growing up in Middle Europe. The premiere took place in January 2018 in WUK during the “Huggy Bears 2017 final Showing”. The piece named “di stance” received positive feedback by the critics.