Together with her co-director and brother, Abderhalden has been recognised for her notable efforts in breaking down cultural barriers through fifty years of dedicated work.
Her family's first language was French and she and her brother left Colombia after school there to study at the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.
[2] She, her sister Elizabeth and her younger brother Rolf Abderhalden co-founded Mapa Teatro in Paris in 1984,[3] before moving their partnership to Bogotá in 1986.
Their theatre collective has functioned for over fifty years and at many times in a country under arms facing internal conflict.
[2] In 2018 she and her brother Rolf were awarded the Goethe Medal for their work with Mapa Teatro in breaking down cultural barriers.