Malevolace, diferentes formas de salvarse a sí mismo
UDÂNA, plataforma de creación escénica
De los seres con inercia al vacío speaks of the inertia of beings inexorable to their temporality. Ineluctable, they resist the fleetingness of their vitality; their bodies, their works, their transit, their caducity impel them in the face of intimate cataclysms and the insoluble vertigo of their existence.
Artistic direction and choreography: Alejandra Ramirez
Musical composition: Andres Solis
From the fragment of De los seres con inercia al vacío (From beings with inertia to emptiness)
Flute: Gaston Artigas
Programming, percussions, bass and electric guitar: Andres Solis
XLIII A Contemporary Requiem was Co-commissioned by Montalvo Arts Center and the Center for the Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University, XLIII is a new site-specific performance work created by Mexico City-based composer/sound artist Andres Solis and choreographer/dancer Sandra Milena Gómez in association with the Santa Clara University Chamber Singers, and conductor Scot Hanna-Weir.
The requiem is traditionally an act or token of remembrance for the dead, and has inspired compositions by such musical luminaries as Mozart, Verdi, Brahms, Dvořák and Ligeti. This immersive contemporary reworking of the genre by Solis and Gómez mixes traditional elements of organ and choir with electronics and choreographed movements.This time to remember the 43 dispeard students of Ayotzinapa, and all the victims of violence in Mexico and arround the world.
Original music composition: Andres Solis
Choreography: Sandra Milena Gómez
Music conductor: Scot Hanna-Weir
Dancers: Sandra Milena Gómez, Lauren Baines, Andrea Cabrera and Mariana Denhi Estrada Romero
Organ: James Welch
Director / editor: Paris Coyne
Producer: Stephen Lee
Produced by Santa Clara University
Produced by Montalvo Arts Center
Cameras: Ryan Daly, Christopher Gaines, Kirkland Langberg, Randy Vanible and Paris Coyne
Producer sound design: Stephen Lee
Producer lighting design: Carolyn Foot
SCU Chamber Choir
Excerpt:
The piece Sukha, la insurgencia del gozo addresses joy as a form of resistance to a world where the promise of happiness is based on materialism; where the primary objective has become profit and over-consumption and emotions categorised as commercial products, - where black, arab, indigenous, gypsy or other bodies that are not within the canons of the system have been denied, where colonialism is prioritised and erases the identities of less favoured communities; as well as where fear and desolation have become powerful weapons to keep us under control, but also where joy expressed in different artistic forms has confronted violence and injustice. This piece will premiere in 2021 at the Foro la Gruta thanks to the support of the Centro Cultural Helénico.
Sukha invites us to experience different emotions and reflections on the idea of joy as a way of resisting / insisting / re-existing. It is a performance piece that bets not only on enunciating the desire for transformation but also on doing so from a joyful alternative. It defends the joy, dance and music that are characteristic of our Latin American identity, as our own way of insisting.
Multidisciplinary Piece
Duration: 58 min
Creation, direction and choreography:
Sandra Milena Gómez
Original idea, stage direction and choreography: Sandra Milena Gómez
Original music and sound design:
Andrés Solís
Set and lighting design:
Sara Alcantar
Visual Design:
Ale Ariza
Costume design:
Valeria Paulino and Udâna
Graphic Design:
Clara Rodriguez
Texts:
Sandra Milena Gómez with contributions by Karim Raciel and Diana Résendiz
Executive Producer:
Diana Reséndiz
Performers:
Darling Lucas, Sandra Milena Gómez, Mariana Denhí Estrada, Erándeni Yáñez y Andrea Bautista
Malevolance, Diferentes Formas de Salvarse a sí mismo, is the result of an in-depth investigation into the resistance of different women singers, poets, dancers, in the midst of forced displacement due to the armed conflict in Colombia and Mexico. it premiered in 2017 at the Foro la Gruta, thanks to the support of the Centro Cultural Helénico. That same year it was listed by Nexos magazine as one of the best dance works of the year. In 2018 it was selected for the 3rd Muestra de Teatro de la Ciudad de México and by the Museo Nacional de Memoria Histórica de Colombia to be part of its virtual catalogue. The piece has remained in force until the present day, receiving support such as the Creadores Escénicos programme awarded to Sandra Milena Gómez, the Fomento y Coinversiones programme of the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes in 2019 and México: Encuentro de las Artes Escénicas (ENARTES) of the Sistema de Apoyos a la Creación y a Proyectos Culturales (SACPC).
Colombia is the country with the second highest number of victims of forced displacement in the world after Syria, and in Mexico the numbers are increasing. We dance guided by the voices of women who have resisted by singing, writing poems, healing wounds and rebuilding entire communities to open the possibility that through our voice and our dance, the memory remains alive and gives an account of those who have turned the pain of war into songs, poems and constant struggles: into different ways of saving oneself.
Creation, direction and choreography:
Sandra Milena Gómez
Performers: Mariana Denhi Estrada, Marlen García, Sandra Milena Gómez y Juana Pabla González
Sound Design: Andrés Solís, María Fernanda Carrillo and Juana Pabla González.
Original Composition: Andrés Solís
Music and Songs:
Field recordings from the documentary "Cantadoras, Memorias de Vida y Muerte en Colombia" (Colombia-Mexico, 2017) by María Fernanda Carrillo.
Drummer: Albano Sánchez
Lighting Design:
Sara Alcantar
Visual Production:
María Fernanda Carrillo
Scenic Design:
Sara Alcantar and Sandra Milena Gómez
Costume Design:
Mirel García and Udâna Plataforma de Creación Escénica
Image design:
Andrés Solis
Executive Producer:
Diana Eréndira Reséndiz
Chumki Di-Big Sister, this project arises from the story of Chumki Hansda, a 29 year old young woman from India with whom Sandra Gómez, the author of this proposal, created a very close bond of friendship. Due to the physical and psychological violence constantly inflicted by her spouse, Chumki decides to commit suicide, a fact that has a strong impact on Sandra and leads her to reflect on gender violence, developing this problem as the main idea of the play. This multidisciplinary play premiered in June 2016. More than 38 performances of the piece took place during a consecutive year and it is a piece that is still in our repertoire. Project supported by the BBVA Bancomer Foundation Grant for the Arts.
Through a staging and the collaboration of a creative team made up of a lighting designer, a musician and a choreographer, we pay homage to the memory of Chumki Hansda and to all the women who have died or suffer due to gender violence, using dance, theatre, music, video and performance as our main artistic languages. This piece is an offering in honour of the vitality, strength and joy that in Sandra's eyes characterised Chumki Hansda, where dance and memory come together to celebrate friendship and life.
Multidisciplinary Piece
Duration: 60 min
Directed by:
Sandra Milena Gómez
Current Performers:
Mariana Estrada Romero, Sandra Milena Gómez , Andrea Bautista y Erándeni Yáñez
Sound design and musical composition: Andrés Solís
Lighting Design:
Sara Alcántar
Production:
Diana Eréndira Reséndiz
Video:
Jean-Frédéric Chevallier and Sandra Milena Gómez
Video voice and biographical research:
Bhudray Besra
Manasseh and The Schizophrenia is a narrative choreography about memory, the reminiscence of traumatic events, the conflict to live after a trauma and the search for a way to overcome it.
Manasseh means "the one that makes me forget". This story of a soldier named Manasseh who has experienced the atrocity of a war and longs to find a way to forget the images that torment him. As occurs regularly after a traumatic event of this type, the brain may produce neurotransmitters in a way that diseases such as schizophrenia are developed. This is the case of the main character of this work.
The choreographer is interested in portraying that sometimes it is not necessary to suffer this disease or to possess a schizoid personality to experience the torment of living with different voices, opinions and internal judgments regarding an event, especially in a moment of crisis or deep sadness.
This choreography is divided into 6 scenes. Three are marked by the three movements of the Concerto in a minor for violin and cello, op. 102, "Double" by Brahms, two interludes created by Andrés Solís, and the aria "Serse: Aria Ombra Mai Fù", by Handel.
Scene 1: War.
Scene 2: Childhood.
Scene 3: In the Garden of Shadows.
Scene 4: Manasseh and the Schizophrenia.
Scene 5: The hospital
Scene 6: Like any person.
Choreography, Set Design, Costume Design and Light Design: Diego Vázquez
Music: J. Brahms, F. Händel and Andrés Solis
Dancers:
Sarah Matry-Guerre
Jairo Cruz
José Ramon Corral
Ana Paula Oropeza
Ana Estrada
Diego Vázquez
Alejandra Occelli
Jessica Becerra
Running Time: 45 min.