Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo is a Cuban-Spaniard, nonbinary choreographer, director, and movement artist known for blending dance, ritual, and surrealism into immersive, emotionally resonant work. A first-generation American, their practice explores transformation, communal care, and unseen forces through nonlinear storytelling and hybrid movement languages. Grounded in both classical and street techniques, their work weaves improvisation, structure, and presence to give form to memory and transformation.

Known for seamlessly adapting across disciplines, Toogie works across the music industry, film, live performance, commercials, and movement direction, with choreography credits including Alicia Keys, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Khalid, Miguel, Sabrina Carpenter, and Tove Lo. Their work has received international recognition, including being named one of Billboard’s Top 12 Most Iconic Choreographers of the Decade for Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” and earning an MTV VMA nomination for Best Dance Video for “Electricity.”

Toogie’s choreography has been presented at The Music Center, Pacific Design Center, LA Theatre Center, and Art Share LA, among others. They also choreographed the Lighting of the Sails at the Sydney Opera House with Andy Huang. Premiering June 2022, Metanoia, an evening-length dance theatre work directed and devised by Toogie. An exploration of metamorphosis and the cyclical nature of grief, Metanoia is a collective meditative experience materialized through performance.

Toogie is committed to movement as an embodied archive. Their process emphasizes care, ease, and a deep engagement with the body’s ability to hold history and shape new futures. This commitment comes to life through wiggle room, an improvisational class experience that integrates breath, sensation, and presence, offering space for release, reflection, and creative inquiry.

As an artist-in-residence at the Center for Provocative Thought, Toogie continues to expand the role of movement as a tool for reflection, healing, and transformation.