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Promotional video
Co-production with Julio Mario Santo Domingo Theater
Name: IRA. Triptych
Choreographers: Laisvie Andrea choa, Diana León y Valerie Green.
Dancers: David Bernal, Christian Briceño, Hilse León, Lorena Lozano, Mateo Mejía y Laura Toro.
Sound design: René Moreno.
Scenography and lights design: Luis David Cáceres
Documentary and photos: Camila Malaver.
Graphic design: Laisvie Andrea Ochoa.
Special thanks to: Sandra Paola López
ABOUT THE WORK
IRA is a triptych-like piece that addresses the issue of anger as a feeling that arises in the face of injustice and that has the potential to instigate social change. Three choreographers, two nationals and one international, present their own perspective on questions such as: Where do the different expressions of anger inhabit in the body? How does this feeling arise and how is it transformed? What can mobilize anger beyond destruction? Is anger part of our sentimental identity as Colombians? Although the work is made up of three pieces, as a whole it develops an artistic language based on the notion of Universal Accessibility. This means that it integrates elements such as Sign Language and audio description as expressive means within its dramaturgy, so that all audiences can enjoy it.
Our commitment to inclusion is not only reflected in working with artists with and without disabilities, but also in opening the work to a diverse audience.
Universal Accessibility
One of the most important aspect of the project is to create under the notion of universal accessibility. This means that we will integrate elements such as subtitles, audio description and sign language within the dramaturgy of the work. Our interest is to use these tools as means of expression that constitutes our language as an inclusive dance company. Thus, our commitment to breaking down barriers to participation in the performing arts will not only be reflected in working with artists with and without disabilities, but also in opening up to a diverse audience.
ABOUTH THE CREATION PROCESS
3 pieces - 3 makers - 3 residences
Working from February to August 2021
Valerie Green
Choreographer, dancer and dance teacher. Director of Dance Entropy from New York, USA.
ABOUT VALERIE GREEN/DANCE ENTROPY
Founded in 1998, Valerie Green/Dance Entropy believes in humanizing movement, both in Ms. Green’s critically acclaimed choreographic work and the company’s mission to plant creative seeds in communities across the world. Intersecting mortal and transcendent, sensual and sophisticated, visceral and self-aware, VG/DE invites the artist, the audience—the human—into a compelling, physical experience. Based out of its home studio, Green Space in Queens, NY, VG/DE combines performance and specialized outreach programs to inspire communities in cultural institutions throughout the world. As a professional nonprofit dance company, the communities we engage with have included at risk youth, adolescents, the chronically ill, trauma survivors, immigrants, senior citizens and aspiring/professional dancers.
Diana León
Dance educator and choreographer from Bogota. Artistic director of ConCuerpos.
Dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. She has a degree in Art Education from the Francisco José De Caldas University. She studied dance at Danza Común academy and the Instituto Superior de Artes de La Habana (Cuba) ISA. Diana is a student of the specialisation in Human Development with an emphasis on affective and creative processes at the Francisco José de Caldas University. She has participated as choreographer and co-director in the companies Teatro Asfalto y Polvareda “Simoncito” (2007), Línea de aire Contemporary dance company “Detrás de mis ojos”, “La Oruga” and “Oxigeno” (2008-2012), and, La Torpe Company “Luna Inquieta” (2015). As a dancer and performer she has participated in works by the companies Itinera physical theater (2013), La Resistencia (2014-2015), La Malinche (2015), Imagen en Movimiento in the dance film “De cara al Cielo” (2015), OBJET-FAX (2017-2019) and ConCuerpos (2018). Since 2019, she is the Artistic Director of ConCuerpos leading the training program of the company Zona de Creación Accesible (Accessible Creation Zone) and directing the dance “2/3y un baño” which had a telematic version in 2020, and was developed thanks to the creation grand given by the District Institute of the Arts in Bogota, IDARTES.
Laisvie Andrea Ochoa
Choreographer, video artist and inclusive dance expert. Director of ConCuerpos.
Colombian-Lithuanian choreographer, inclusive dance expert and video artist. She is the co-founder and current leader of “ConCuerpos”. Laisvie studied Psychology and a Specialisation in Multimedia Creation in Colombia and the Master in Choreography COMMA (CODARTS / Fontys) in the Netherlands. She trained in dance mainly at Danza Comnun academy in Bogota and has been a dancer in Colombia for the companies La Arenera, Tercero Excluido, Korpe, and La Gata Cirko. Laisvie is a member of the performing arts magazine el cuerpoeSpin and she has co-written 2 books in the field of Inclusive Dance. Laisvie has directed dance works in Colombia, Argentina, and the Netherlands. Currently, her main creative exploration is multimedia performance, while maintaining the values she developed in her inclusive dance practice: work from subjectivity, develop bodily intelligence from a state of listening and find creative freedom from the abundance of imagination. Laisvie addresses political and human issues in her works, with a broad understanding of dance. At the moment she moves between Colombia and the Netherlands, continuing her work with ConCuerpos, being a dance teacher and a maker. In the Netherlands, she is working for the dance theatre company Plan D and as a video artist for the choreographer Roshanak Morrowatian.
PHASES:
From February 9 to March 11 2021
The objective is to start the explorations on the choreographic possibilities to approach anger from the notion of universal accessibility. For this reason, various mechanisms that link movement, verbal description and use of the Colombian Sign Language will be investigated.
As a result of this stage, it is sought to have clarity to make the first proposals for costumes, art, scenery, sound and accessibility. These will be the common elements between the three pieces of the triptych.
Residence: From March 16 to June 2 2021
Work in progress performance: Friday, June 4 2021
Starting point:
Diana is interested in researching about the different expressions of anger in the unique corporalities of each dancer, investigating how to convert these states into movement. Diana understands anger as a motor source, as an explosion that finally allows a rebirth. Where do the different expressions of anger inhabit the body? What qualities, states or qualities of movement does it provoke? How to maintain a physical state of anger over time and develop it? What happens in the interaction between bodies that are in a state of anger?
Context:
The exploration of Diana León (the artistic director of ConCuerpos) began in 2020 within the project Accessible Creation Zone. The Zone is the space where the dancers of ConCuerpos investigate how to train professionally from the inclusive perspective. Here you can see the multimodal documentation of this process:
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/818736/818737
Diana is doing a Specialisation in Human Development and has linked the research of the Zone to her studies. Thus, her interest is to make a piece for IRA that uses the tools developed by the company in the Zone 2020, applied to choreographic creation. In particular, she will follow the processes of two wheelchair-user dancers as they are the ones who have made the most interesting adaptations and reflections on the techniques in relation to their diverse corporalities. In this manner, her piece, in addition to being part of the triptych, is contextualised as the final work of her Specialisation, with a written theoretical support.
Residence: From March 29 to April 9 2021
Work in progress performance: Friday, April 9 2021
Context:
Valerie will be travelling to Bogota to do an intensive residency thanks to the alliance that the company has developed with the Colombian artist, living in the United States, Sandra Paola López. Sandra Paola is a multidisciplinary creator who develops her work under the principles of solidarity, collaborative work and the expansion of the concept of dance. For this reason, she has always felt a great affinity with ConCuerpos, and has sought to generate exchange projects with the company. Sandra Paola was part of HOME, an international cross-collaborative dance project featuring choreographers from six countries including Sweden, India, Colombia, Lebanon, Burkina Faso, and the US. An exchange component with this project is designed for Artistic Director Valerie Green to also travel to partner countries to engage in working with the local dance community. This is how Paola connected Valerie and ConCuerpos.
Residence: From July 26 to August 7 2021
Work in progress performance: Friday, August 6th 2021 / Javeriana University
Starting point:
Ira will be the opportunity for Laisvie to continue with the work that relates dance and Sign Language. The aim is to enhance the kinetic characteristic of this type of communication in choreographic terms. The starting point will be the historic event of El Bogotazo (April 9, 1948), where collective anger spread throughout Colombia, becoming a milestone in the history of the country, that continues to have repercussions today. Specifically, Laisvie is interested in inquiring about the place of anger in the sentimental configuration of Colombian identity. Is the fire started in El Bogotazo still burning on our skin? How deep is the mark it has left us? How do we narrate through the movement this milestone of eruption of collective violence?
Context:
The director of ConCuerpos, Laisvie Andrea Ochoa, will be in charge of directing the third part of the triptych in an intensive two-week process. Laisvie currently moves between Colombia and the Netherlands where she completed a master’s degree in choreography. Since 2017, when he left to start his studies, he has managed to maintain his role as leader of ConCuerpos thanks to constant travel between the two countries and the collaborative work with the team in Bogotá, contributing with the vision and philosophy of the company, besides management and administration work. Within her creative work at ConCuerpos, Laisvie began an investigation in 2013 on the relationship between Sign Language and choreography with the support of dancers Christian Briceño, Jhon Jairo Vanegas and Alejando Penagos. An example is the video dance Tactil. Laisvie developed this exploration in her master’s project.
Follow us
Documentary series
Video artist Camila Malaver will follow the creation process to film a sensitive documentary that will have three chapters. The main narrative language will be dance.
We will share this beautiful documentary through Patreon.com where our subscribers will receive a monthly advance, and will be able to know how an inclusive dance company works under the notion of universal accessibility.
