Week 2 - Lisbon 2018

We are back in Lisbon, Portugal, for an exciting 5th edition of Metamorphosis International Residency. The dancers have arrived and we are moving full steam ahead with different projects happening within the next month. There are performances at Museo do Agua, Museo Berardo and Fundación Oriente, and an experiment with neuro-scientists recording dancers’ movements, with their high-tech findings projected onto screens. Mexican and Portuguese photographers and film directors are all part of the team, together with Spanish singer Maria Berasarte, who will also join the dancers during performances. 25 dancers from 15 nationalities are exploring under the guidance of Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich. What an electric ambiance and space to thrive in. Here we go!

The next few days are dedicated to hard work in the studio. The air thick with focus and concentration after an initial power warm up and barre - the perfect combination of strengthening and lengthening all areas of the body. Clothes drenched by mental and physical work.

A significant emphasis is placed on “clean work” and the clarity of the mind. Each day coming back to placement of the entire body to create a healthy dancer, essential for longevity of a career in dance. Precise pathways are practiced over and over. “Don’t shortcut the path, it’s a long path. Ask yourself, what is the path of the arm?

Search for this and don’t be happy with the minimum. Always more.”

It is a 360 degree awareness that one continues to strive for. Connected from toenail to top of the head, reaching to the tips of the fingers and beyond. Iratxe and Igor’s famous frase, “eyes in the back” expands to “eyes behind your knees” and then filters through the whole body. These dancers are building up a sense of teamwork and responsibility for themselves as the hours continue. Through positive reinforcement and repetition the group is energized. “Do it again so that you really understand deeply.”

Today was to learn more about how to be fully conscious about what we are doing. Tomorrow and for the next few weeks to come, this theme will live on in the studio.