Amaia Mugica
Senior Lecturer (Movement)
Amaia Mugica is a director, movement director, somatic movement educator, researcher, and performer with expertise in physical theatre, movement for actors, and devising.
With a passion for exploring human experiences from an embodied perspective, she approaches her work from and with the body. Amaia has a diverse educational background that includes Acting, Audiovisual and Performing Arts Technology, and Dance Movement Therapy. She holds an MA in Movement: Directing and Teaching from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Her eclectic practice utilises a person-centred approach and features innovative works that seamlessly blend theatre, movement-based techniques, and moving image/documentary. Her cutting-edge practice remains at the forefront of devised, interdisciplinary theatre-making.
Currently, she is pursuing a Professional Doctorate, focusing her research on women in physical theatre and somatic actor training methodologies. Some of her further research interests include: the embodiment of languages and accents, and the horror genre in theatre.
Amaia’s work has been showcased in various settings, including artistic organisations, educational institutions, and community-based projects such as Candem Peoples Theatre, Streatham Space Project, MMU,Guildhall, All In Actors, The Cockpit Theatre, London College of Music, Arcola Theatre, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, IDSA, ALRA, WAC, and Hackney Shed, among others.
She has worked internationally in countries such as Spain, the UK, Australia, Mexico, Germany, and the USA, to name a few.
Amaia has presented her work at various conferences:
2025 SPA Malta University (Valletta, Malta). Presentation: Forced migration, audible minorities, and international actors navigating identities in UK Performing Arts.
2024, Practice Research Conference UEL (London, UK). Video presentation: Intersectionality in Artistic Research.
2024 Forced Migration and the Arts. Online presentation and sharing Talk by Civil Leicester. Directed by Ambrose Musiyiwa.
2024 Symposium "Cultural Action and The Performing Arts: Equitable Models of Economic Growth"
Case study presentation: Do not erase me from my own work! The invisibility of the female director.
2022 IFTR (International Federation of Theatre Research) Reykjavik, Iceland
Presentation: Shifting Physical Theatre techniques through female somas.
2022 BMCA Denison, Ohio. Presentation: Embodied somatic movement in devised Theatre-Making.