Wild Card residency for Citalli Avalos Montoya

Workspace Brussels has chosen Citlalli Avalos to take part in Wild Cards residency offered by Workshop Foundation, between 1st and 11th of June 2018.
During the artistic residency, she worked on the creation of her solo project,‘| e n t r e l I n e a s |’, which focuses on personal, artistic identity and personal scenic and movement language.

During the one and a half week residency, Citlalli Avalos not only researched and rehearsed for the solo piece, but she held a three-days workshop (2 hours per a day) for professional and amateaur dancers. On the intensive courses the participants learned improvisational, somatic and Feldenkrais-based practices.

The residency was closed with a work-in-progress presentation and an open feedback session in  the Grabó Studio of the Foundation.
Number of cultural workers: 1 dancer
Number of entries: 8 participants, 14 audience

REPORT by Citlalli Avalos Montoya

Artistic residency

WorkShop Foundation // workspacebrussels

Life Long Burning Wild Cards residency program

* The residency:

-I spend a total of 11 inspiring days (from 1st – 11thof July), in residency under the warm shelter of the team of The Workshop Foundation at Jurányi House in the beautiful Budapest.

-I had the opportunity to share from inside out | PERCEPTION IN MOTION, my practice as a dancer, teaching 2 hrs class during 3 days.

-I showed two times the work in progress.

*In concrete:

Spending this time submerged in an inspiring place such as Budapest/Jurányi House was of great help to me to keep focused, working and delving into the research + development of | e n t r e l I n e a s |.

This time urge me to  question / rethink / reconsider / redesign / my own practice in terms of two essential things: a) the creation process per se and b) my practice as a dancer/bodywork in a way that this two things stay correlated, complementing each other,  adding up to the piece.

In terms of the content of the piece, I worked the “emotional” side of it. I can see that I’ve been working so long on the creation that I’ve become kind of emotionally disconnected of it. So I worked on re-finding myself in the piece, how I am/ I can emotionally relate to each of the different moments in it. Specifically a moment where I intend to research the concept of re-encounter with myself and I sense that it is developed in a superficial level up until now.

In terms of the objects that I use during the piece I work on how I relate to those objects, physically/practically, but also in terms of emotion. Why did I picked this objects and no others? Should I keep all of them? Are some of them superfluous? In which order should I put them on? How? Which outer images/meanings am I creating with them? I found out that I need to deepen my research with the foot pump, the horn that I use at the end and their relationship.

Besides, In the search of new images, ideas, possibilities and maybe changes of direction in the piece I expand the research to one more object, an inflatable body bubble ball. 

This time help me as well to clarify what I want from the segments in which I’ve “divided” the piece and the images that arise of what I am doing.

I had the time to redefine, clarify and delve into the body sensations and atmospheres that I want to use to create the body language but also the ones I would like the audience to be immerse in. How can I do this? How I can access to them?

Also, I worked on the idea of timing, how different is the concept time on stage related to that of the audience? How can I stay conscious about the difference of the time as a performer and that of the audience while I am performing? Personally, I observe that as I performer, as a “doer”, things can happen really fast, but this sensation is very different from the “whatchers” point of view!

* from inside out | PERCEPTION IN MOTION, the class/sharing:

I had the opportunity to share my body/research practice as a dancer by teaching 2 hrs class during 3 days.

The objective of this sharing was to open in a difference way the creation process of the piece. To share the origins of the scenic and movement language, through which I wanted to communicate and incorporate in this work that I am developing. 

The class was opened to amateurs/professional dancers and persons interested in any body practices / movement.

The first day came 8 persons, the second day 7 persons and the last day 8 persons. 

* The showings:

I did 2 showings followed by a question/answer session and feedback.

I first showed the work to The Workshop Foundation’s team and another guest artist making a residency. We organized as well a showing open to the general public, in which were present The Workshop Foundation’s team plus 11 persons (among them some of the dancers that came to my classes).

It was really interesting open up how it’s been the process of creation, my doubts about it, what I hesitate about, what keeps me curios. Through this sharing I discover how easy is to connect to people when one exposes one self's processes/work with simplicity and honesty, without masks. I could see how important was to share and teach some days before my practice as a dancer, because the specific language of movement in the piece comes directly from this practice, and the audience could relate more with what they were seeing.

The feedback open up to me the strength of some images that I am creating and that I wasn’t aware of that. Also the multiples interpretations, even opposed, that the objects that I am using in the piece can have. From my perspective I should be conscious about it and in some cases decide if I want to use this images, if they help to what I want to say in the piece  or they are redundant/dispensable.

They were nice ideas coming from the public related to how I could use in different manner the objects, for example a pair of inflatable wings, the mattress foot pump, the lights, etc.

Also it was interesting how one moment in the piece could have opposed opinions, for example: the beginning of the piece, in terms of whether It works to be wearing all the elements when the audience comes in or get dress in front of them; the convenience, or not, of the last image of me unwrapping a gift; etc.

Finally, through the feedback I could see in which moments the piece is still fragile, even superficial, where I should go deeper in the research and maybe redefine, even exclude, some parts that I thought required.