Marina Otero: Art, Mental Health & Rising Festival
Marina Otero’s “Kill Me” is set to ignite discussion around mental health and artistic expression at Melbourne’s Rising festival. This powerful dance performance delves into personal conversion, offering a raw, autobiographical look at the choreographer’s experiences. The show, incorporating nude dance and eclectic music, challenges stigmas. Find this story and more coverage like it at News Directory 3. Eager to learn how Otero’s art sparks dialog?
Marina Otero’s ‘Kill Me’ to Explore Mental Health at Rising Festival
Updated May 25, 2025
Argentinian choreographer Marina Otero’s show, “Kill Me,” which explores themes of mental health and personal transformation, will be featured at Melbourne’s Rising festival in June. Otero, who documented her own mental breakdown in 2022, uses the footage in the performance.
Otero, speaking from Madrid, said her breakdown stemmed from a midlife crisis, unstable travel, and a relationship with a narcissistic man.she was later diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. “It seemed engaging to me, recording the darkest parts of a person,” Otero said.
“Kill Me” incorporates stories and reenactments of painful experiences from Otero and four female dancers, all of whom have personal experiences with mental illness. The show aims to “poetise mental disorder” through playful elements like nude dance numbers, rollerskating, and an eclectic soundtrack. One scene features the dancers wielding plastic pistols, symbolically killing romantic love. The show also includes a male dancer channeling Vaslav Nijinsky, the Russian ballet dancer who had schizophrenia.