Bones, flesh and teeth
Here I present a somatic exploration of different body systems I did to construct the body of the wolf-woman. This exploration was developed in collaboration with the dancer Alice Gioria and it is the base for my final artistic outcome, Wolfe and Libertad 2019.
Time to come back to the body
Delving into the state of bodily consciousness that becomes movement without thinking of forms, without predicting a future but starting from the sensible connection. Work from the resonant body as proposed by the Brazilian author Suely Rolnik (2006), where sensitivity opens and the body has the ability to affect and be affected. This resonant body receives internal and external forces and integrates them into a texture of sensations that becomes movement.
I wrote these words at the beginning of the project and I came back to that resonant state to construct the wolf-woman body. What emerges when the transformation starts from the anatomy?
The exploration and the piece were developed by following La Loba tale. In the beginning, there are just bones lost in the desert. The manifestation of a fragile, unstable and bouncy state is overlapped with images of gathering and collect bones. In this manner, the wolf skeleton appears. How does it fell to have a wolf skeleton? To walk in all fours and have a long tail?
Then, the creature starts to flesh out, her heart beats fast and her muscles become strong. Physical endurance is the metaphor for inner strength and dancing from the rhythm of the heart shows the power of the wolf-woman. Then, the focus goes to the teeth, the external part of the digestive system that serves both to feed and to protect the loved ones. The creature plays and protects while the images show her hunger and attack. This relational aspect is the way to introduce elements that refer to culture. This is the moment when the dancer puts clothes on. Before that, she was only wearing a loose top and skin colour shorts so the skin was an available projection surface and the focus was on the bodily state. Wearing clothes is a symbol of the entrance of culture in an animal body that becomes human and therefore is able to speak. The 3 generations speech is performed at this moment (half of it pre-recorded and the other live) as the reference to the force that comes from the lineage.
The spoken word transforms into the sign language mechanism to present La Loba trio where 2 imago dancers interact with the physical presence. This physicality leads to a strong presence where the voice of the young ones takes over. In this manner, the piece finishes with the We Are One speech performed live and using the body as a canvas to project the double-head creature created with the wolf paper mask.
Presence exercise.
Inspired by Sofia Mejia
(Approx duration: 45 mins)
Standing with open eyes.
Bring your awareness to the body.
To the breath -fell the constant exchange between the air that comes in from the outside and the breath that goes out from the inside.
Out/In - In/Out.
Feel the breath as a movement.
Bring your awareness to the structure. To your skeleton.
To each bone.
Let them hang. Let them fall.
Feel all the directions they propose.
Feel all the points of connection, each articulation and its possibilities. Feel the connective tissue.
Feel your ligaments and cartilages.
Feel how the flesh embraces that structure.
Release as much as you can before collapsing to gravity.
Feel the gravity pulling you. Resist less.
Allow the inner organs to hang.
Fell your guts, fell your lungs, fell your heart.
Activate your skin. Fell the temperature, all that you are in contact to.
Pay attention to what you hear,
to what you taste,
to what you smell,
to what you see.
Warm-up your voice.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
ooooooooooooooooo
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Feel it all at the same time as a whole.
Rich and calm. Alive. Ready.
Connect to the present moment. Here and now.
Look for the movement potential that is already in your body.
Give in and move.
The voice is part of the body. Verbalise what you are experiencing to the detail. Use words or sounds.
Move how it feels nice, how you want to move. Follow your intuition.
This is for you.
We give ourselves to a continuous state of presence, that must be updated in every movement and that in each fold has an encounter.
At first, the bones are disassembled. They move in a chaotic manner. They are just pieces lost in the desert. Then, it is the moment to collect them, to arrange them so the skeleton of the wolf can emerge.
Teeth serve both to attack and to protect. What does it feel to be hungry? How do you play with your love ones?
The heart beat is the basic rhythm of life. The wolf becomes alive by expanding and contracting as the heart. Flowing rapidly as the blood. Her muscles are strong, powerful and resistant.
Video (1 min, 4 Secs): Connecting to the rhythm of the arterial blood and expanding and contracting as the heart.