At Metzineres, we understand feminism as a living, situated, and transformative practice. A feminism built from the margins, from the experiences of women who survive multiple forms of violence, stigma, and exclusion. It is within this framework that MetziBaila was born: a community-based creative project that places the body, dance, and performance at the heart of political and collective action.
You can see a summary of MetziBaila
Here
A process that goes beyond the stage
MetziBaila has not been just a performative piece. Above all, it has been a process. A space for coming together, building cohesion, and listening, both for the staff team and for the women participating in Metzineres’ sheltering environments.
Initially, the project envisaged a series of sessions to co-create and present a public piece as part of a global advocacy action. However, internal changes within the team, new staff members joining, and unforeseen circumstances led us to rethink our timing and priorities. True to our flexible and adaptive model, we decided to reshape the project and place it on a symbolic date: 8 March 2025, International Women’s Day and a day of feminist struggle.
This decision was not merely logistical. It was political. We wanted the action to engage with a context that speaks directly to our realities and to allow us to advocate from a feminist, anti-prohibitionist, anti-racist, and human rights-based perspective.
First stage: caring for the team, inhabiting the body
The first phase of the project focused on internal work with the professionals at Metzineres. Over four sessions, we created a space that was different from the everyday work environment: a space to set the body in motion, explore tensions, share emotional impacts, and strengthen the cohesion of a team that had recently undergone changes.
Participants described this process as “powerful.” It allowed us to (re)discover one another, create a different kind of dialogue — not only verbal, but embodied — and open up more intimate spaces for collective care.
During these sessions, the foundations of the performance piece also began to take shape: lyrics, movements, structure. But, as with everything at Metzineres, nothing was set in stone.
Second stage: creating with women, not for women
The second phase brought in women participating in Metzineres. Participation was voluntary and based on their own motivations and desires. And that changed everything.
The initial proposal had to be reworked. It was too long, too complex, and did not fully resonate with them. Through dialogue and assembly-based discussion, the lyrics and movements were simplified, making them shorter, more accessible, and more visually powerful. The aim was to create an action that was clear, direct, and easy to learn, taking into account the complexity of their lives.
As part of this process, we also opened up a critical reflection on possible similarities with other global feminist performances. Rather than ignoring this, we chose to reformulate the piece to ensure that the action was genuinely our own, situated in our context, and consistent with the Metzineres collective. This process of analysis and revision became a valuable form of community learning.
7M: taking over the streets from the margins
The performance action finally took place on 7 March, as part of the nighttime demonstration held ahead of 8M, with the participation of both women and staff members from the organisation.
There was strong agreement that not performing on the official 8M stage was the right decision. Instead, the action took place in a space that participants felt was more their own, less crowded, and less exposing. This strengthened their sense of identification and belonging.
The performance was brief but powerful: feminist, anti-stigma, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and anti-punitive. It was a way of saying that women who use drugs, who survive homelessness, forced migration, sex work, imprisonment, or mental health struggles are also political subjects. And that their voices matter.
Weaving alliances, building community
MetziBaila also created bridges with other local actors, such as the Barceloneta Civic Centre, expanding community-based and artistic work across neighbourhoods. The project showed that, even amid constant changes and reformulations, it is possible to build inclusive community networks and make visible the structural discrimination affecting the women we support.
Impact and continuity
MetziBaila leaves us with clear lessons: the importance of flexibility, genuine listening, situated creation, and placing life at the centre. It reaffirms our belief that art can be a tool for care, protest, and transformation.
Because when bodies move together, when voices intertwine, and when a community recognises itself, feminism ceases to be only a discourse and becomes a living practice.
With the support of
