About

Being human

My work in sculpture focuses on representations of concepts and qualities of humanness—the characterization of various universal emotions, sensations, thought processes, the embodiment of self-identity and manifestations of spirituality. Having a background as a professional dancer, choreographer and competitive athlete, I am used to employing the language of the human body as a means of creative expression, and in sculpture I often use aspects and parts of the human anatomy to convey ideas in physical form. Working primarily in metal renders a certain weight and material presence that I find particularly engaging, and the physicality and three-dimensional visual aspect that comes from being a dancer are what attract me to this medium. Seeing my work I wish the viewer to find resonance and relevance of “being human” as I explore and express in physical form various facets, abstractions and iterations centering around the mind-body connection and the human experience.

Bio

Esperanza Alzona is a sculptor from the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area whose work has been widely exhibited in the region. An award-winning independent choreographer, Ms. Alzona directed her own contemporary dance company based in Turin, Italy, where she lived and danced for six years. As a visual artist she has worked as a graphic designer, and film photographer. As an arts administrator, she was executive director of the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra for over six years and was operations manager for the Shepherd University School of Music for over seventeen years. She is on the faculty of the Mid Maryland Performing Arts Center, and at Shepherd University’s Department of Contemporary Art and Theater she continues much of her studio practice in contemporary sculpture.

Ms. Alzona is a graduate of Leadership Frederick County, and has served as Director of Performing Arts for the Frederick Arts Council, as a Maryland State Arts Council Dance Advisory Panelist, Secretary of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Regional Advisory Panel of the Royal Academy of Dance, and Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Weinberg Center for the Arts, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Committee in Frederick and the TAWA Dance Company. She is a member of the Washington Sculptors Group, the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art, American Women Artists, Maryland Federation of Art, the Frederick Arts Council and the Frederick County Art Association.

Ms. Alzona holds a teaching diploma from the Royal Academy of Dance, an associate in arts degree in humanities and social science from Montgomery College, a bachelor’s degree in psychology from George Washington University and a master’s degree in public communication from American University.

A nationally-ranked competitive fencer, she holds a rating in both foil and saber. She has fenced for Team USA at the Pan American Veteran Fencing Championships ten times, earning seventeen medals.