Alonso Pineda is a Mexico City-born director, producer and arts manager whose work spans theatre, circus, live events and film. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and formerly the General Manager of Circus Oz, he creates bold, contemporary work centred on inclusivity, emotional connection and storytelling.
He has been an ArtsHub member since 2019.
You can visit Alonso Pineda’s website here.
If you’re an ArtsHub member and would like to be profiled on the site, email us with Meet the Members in the subject line.
Alonso Pineda: video
Alonso Pineda: video transcript
My name is Alonso. I’m originally from Mexico, but I’ve lived in Australia since 2019.
I’m a performance director, producer, creator and educator. I come from Mexico City, which is a big, big city, and working in Naarm, in Melbourne, has been so different in terms of scale.
Audiences are smaller and seasons are shorter because of that – because audiences are smaller in terms of numbers.
ArtsHub: Meet the Members: Pamela Kleemann-Passi, visual artist
Working in circus has given me so many tools that I now use in a room when I’m with actors – about how to create from the body rather than from the spoken word.
And for me, as an international director, obviously that’s very important because sometimes my first go-to is not to create from the word, it’s to create from other resources because obviously I’m always directing in my second language here. So having those tools has been amazing.
Alonso Pineda: influences
My work has always been influenced by contemporary dance – I love contemporary dance.
I think that having that inspiration and the tools I have learned from circus, whenever I work with actors I have never worked with before, that it’s a very particular style because of all these influences.
ArtsHub: Meet the Members: Ross Page, founder of the Made in the West Film Festival
Whenever I work with circus artists, I always use all the training I have in theatre to try to break the mould or try to get something else from the artists, or try to provoke them in different ways that they’re not used to.
I treat every project as its own individual journey. Whenever I start a new project, I pay lots of attention to what I think the project needs – that’s how I base the process sometimes.
ArtsHub: Meet the members: Susie Fagan, comedian
It’s always about collaboration, but sometimes I just come with an idea and I just let it take its own place in the group. It depends on the project or the play or the show I’m working on, and also on the people who are in the room.
I pay lots of attention to the people who are there because I believe that, apart from being artists, everyone has a different human experience and that’s one of the most valuable things that I have to work with as a director.
Alonso Pineda: advice for creatives
I would say to work really hard, to be patient, to trust on your own pathway, whatever that means.
Like there’s no right or wrong way to exist in this industry. You build your own pathway and if it’s a healthy, sustainable pathway, you will succeed.
