December 2nd was the fist rehearsal at CounterPulse with Violeta Luna and I. I was a little worried to start since I did not know how Violeta ‘s creative process was in the studio. Before this day we met regularly once a week for the past three months. We created the narrative, brainstormed our ideas, coordinate and organize our meeting with our collaborators and so on. During those meeting we identify 4 characters for each one in regards of our theme, the water crises. Some of these characters are from the Aztec mythology and the others are randomly created by us.
My characters are:
1. Tlaloc the God or Rain
2. El Michoacano, ( Ice Cream pushing cart vendor)
3. Memories of a fish
4. And Teddy (the Polar Bear)
For Violeta the characters are:
1. Chalchiuhtilcue (Goddess of sweet water)
2. La Chamana
3. Sara Pulin
4. And Coyolxauhqui (Goddess of the Moon )
This deity appears decapitated and her limbs chop off by her brother another important deity Huitzilopochtli the god of sun. We felt that Coyoxauhqui represents violence against women in Mexico and beyond, this concern took us away from our topic, water. Coyolxauhqui needed it to be explore by its on. However we decided to use her as the Mother Earth and how humans have exploited, and raped it by our urban lifestyle. Coyolxaulqui laid down a great foundation for this work and its explorations.
As a dance maker I used explore lots of movements, repetition through the body and sometimes I try to put some meaning into those routines. Now with Violeta in the studio the approach is quite different, we talk a lot to find meaning and symbols to create physical actions. This process has helped me to connect with her in another level, recognizing our ancestry, history and geography as well as, how is to be living with these immigrated bodies living another culture. There is much more to experience and digest I am looking forward for the next rehearsals.
J.
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These photos are fantastic! I’m so happy to have you both aboard!