Liza Penkova is a Swedish dance-artist living and working in Gothenburg. Born in St Petersburg/Russia in 1981 she arrived as a teenager to Sweden in 1993 and since have been living, studying and working in Sweden and Europe.

Since 2020 she works as a choreographer,  dance-researcher and pedagogue. Currently she is writing an MA-thesis on dance-literacy at the Stockholm university of the arts.

As a choreographer her interest lie in the processes of translation and creolization of language, culture and aesthetics. With movement research as a foundation in her work, she looks for border-less encounters of performing genres, traditions and physical cultures. She often relies on historical archives as an important source of inspiration in both her artistic and academic work. Making visible invisible stories by re-cycling past knowledge has become a reoccurring theme.

Since 2020 she is working on a trilogy project 18 steps through dance history: Part I/My body is a room filled with antiques (2021),  Part II/THE GAP (2023), Part III/House of the pelvic floor (in making).

Liza has also created choreography for musical video’s of significant artists in Europe as Manu Louis,  Dominique Dalcan and contributed with her choreography in music concerts, latest with the rising Swedish pop-star Paperwing.

Previously, Liza worked as a professional dancer in Brussels, Belgium. After her studies at The Royal Swedish Ballet school, P.A.R.T.S  and her first professional engagement with the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, she spent a significant amount of time working for the world-known choreographer Anne Teresa deKeersmaeker and her company Rosas. During those years Liza also had the opportunity to work with the Antwerp-based theater group TgSTAN.  In her last years in Brussels she had a meaningful working encounter with the well-admired choreographer Michele Noirét .

Since 2012 she has been participating as a dancer in several productions of the established Swedish choreographer Helena Franzén as well as worked with freelance choreographers in Belgium such as Georgia Vardarou and Veli Lehtovaara .

Throughout the years in Brussels Liza was also one of the initiators behind The House of Bertha collective and the collective Phd in one night. Work that pushed her into becoming interested in developing her own voice as a choreographer and as a dance-scholar.

Liza has been continuously receiving support from various institutions throughout her career, including the Gothenburg City Culture Committee, Västra Götaland Region, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, the Swedish Arts Council, Danscentrum, Carina Ari minnesfond and other organizations.