early workAttending a PhD program on Film/Media in Madrid, first job ever as staff writer for El Público theater magazine by the Ministry of Culture of Spain. Training at Spanish National Television. Collaboration with Bufons theater-dance company, and a National Theater.
Butoh Dance Kuenca, White Dance by Albert Jaén for Bufons inspired by Kazuo Ohno I Visual Theater Concert for Stones and Traffic Lights by Bufons inspired by Joan Brossa I National Theater Caresses by Sergi Belbel directed by Guillermo Heras at National Theater I Theater Training University/regional theater.
FIRST LANDING | Madrid | Kazuo Ohno
”In my final year of university, I secured my first job at El Público, a magazine run by Spain's Ministry of Culture. I was likely the youngest staff writer in national media focused on performing arts. My assignments covered contemporary theater, including Robert Wilson, Laurie Anderson, La Fura dels Baus, and the National Center for New Performing Arts. I was later invited to join Bufons' Latin American tour, inspired by Kazuo Ohno.’s work. Eventually, in New York, I saw Sankai Juku perform at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and realized I had found a world where I truly belonged.
SECOND LANDING | Barcelona | Joan Brossa
While exploring art books, I discovered another influential figure: Joan Brossa, one of Spain's most unique artists. CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) celebrated Brossa’s "vast and fragmentary galaxy" of works, which deeply expanded poetic expression and impacted many creative fields. Barcelona served as a bridge to the avant-garde, ultimately leading me to New York.
THIRD LANDING | New York | Robert Wilson
My PhD dissertation Study of Robert Wilson’s Creative Process developed into a book series. I was awarded the highest grant of the year from the Ministry of Culture (which turns into the Fulbright program the next year) to study filmmaking in New York. During my time there, I conducted research on the Black Mountain College —John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, et al— and the Theater of Images —Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, Lee Brauer—. I spent three years working closely with Robert Wilson: An experience that deserves its own story.” — Pedro Valiente [Text from Education]
Aliens Landed in My Life
Photo: © Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio I Fundació Joan Brossa I Robert Wilson RW Ltd.
Butoh Dance
“Butoh (舞踏, Butō) is a form of Japanese dance theater. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations by founders Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.“ [Butoh]
— Kuenca, White Dance in Latin American tour I coordinator
Visual Theater
“We can find various registers and genres in the works of Joan Brossa: literary poetry, theatre, cinema, visual poetry, objects, posters, installations, corporeal poems, etc. All sides of the same pyramid.” [Joan Brossa]
— Concert for Stones and Traffic Lights at Teatro Alfil, Madrid I coordinator
National Theater
“Internationally known performance groups such as Els Joglars, La Fura dels Baus or La Cubana had precipitated a decline in text-based Catalan theatre, reversed in the mid 80s with a younger generation of playwrights led by Sergi Belbel.” [Sergi Belbel]
— Caresses at National Theater, Spain I assistant director
KUENCA, WHITE DANCE
(1989, Spain, 45min) by Albert Jaén at Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex, Venezuela), and National Theater, Guatemala. Director: Albert Jaén. Coordinator: Pedro Valiente
dance
SYNOPSIS A man goes through a process of inner transformation that challenges his human nature. Kuenca, White Dance (Cuenca, danza blanca) solo performance inspired by Butoh founder Kazuo Ohno. IN FOCUS Butoh dance pioneer in Spain I Dance training in Japan/China I Tour in Spain, Europe, US, Latin America I With support of the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain PRESS Behance ASIA Like other theater-dance companies in the late 80s and 90s mostly in Barcelona and Valencia, Bufons multicultural philosophy explored art forms.
CAST Albert Jaén CREW Director: Albert Jaén I Coordinator: Pedro Valiente TECH INFO Running time: 45min I Year: 1989 I Language: Silent I Genre: Butoh dance I Country: Spain I © 1989 Bufons
CONCERT FOR STONES AND TRAFFIC LIGHTS
(1989, Spain, 60min) visual poems by Joan Brossa, by Bufons at Teatro Alfil, Madrid. Director: Albert Jaén. Coordinator: Pedro Valiente
Theater
SYNOPSIS Daily life objects come alive in the masterly hands and indiscernible words by stiff characters on a bare stage. Concert for Stones and Traffic Lights (Concierto para piedras y señales de tráfico) inspired by irregular theater and visual poetry by Spanish writer/artist Joan Brossa. IN FOCUS Expanding Brossa work I Media: The China Post, The Daily News, El País, El Universal PRESS Ministry of Culture I El País LATIN AMERICA Butoh and Brossa’s irregular theater in Latin America.
CAST Albert Jaén, Inma Lopetegui, Pilar López, Antonio Cabello CREW Director: Albert Jaén I Coordinator: Pedro Valiente TECH INFO Running time: 60min I Year: 1989 I Language: Silent I Genre: Visual theater I Country: Spain I © 1989 Bufons
CARESSES
(1994, Spain, 90min) by Sergi Belbel premiered at former Teatro Valle-Inclán National Theater, Spain. Director: Guillermo Heras. Assistant directors: Pepón Nieto, Pedro Manuel Víllora, Pedro Valiente
Theater
SYNOPSIS Disturbing picture of contemporary Western society set against a background of urban alienation and violence. Caresses (Caricias), inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, presents ten scenes with two characters in a confused and contradictory relationship. IN FOCUS Ministry of Culture I El País I Teatrero I Godot SPAIN NTE set a cutting-edge performing arts program, now part of National Theater.
CAST Jorge de Juan, Concha Leza, Milena Montes, Alicia Agut, Fernando Chinarro, Juan Díaz, Antonio Canal, Amparo Pascual, Pepe Martín, Julio Escalada, Lola Mateo CREW Author: Sergi Belbel I Director/set: Guillermo Heras I First AD: Antonio López Dávila I AD: Pepón Nieto, Pedro Manuel Víllora, Pedro Valiente I Light: Miguel Ángel Camacho I Costume: Rosa García TECH INFO Running time: 90min I Year: 1994 I Language: Spanish I Genre: Contemporary theater I Country: Spain I © 1994 CDN
Kazuo Ohno (1906-2010) Japanese dancer, inspirational figure through Butoh dance. “The best thing someone can say to me is that while watching my performance they began to cry. It is not important to understand what I am doing; perhaps it is better if they don't understand, but just respond to the dance.” —KAZUO OHNO
舞踏
BUTOH DANCE After starting in Barcelona, Bufons moved to work in Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha inspired by Butoh philosophy. “Butoh dance is not only a performing art but also a way to explore the relationships of mind and body.” [Butoh] “Butoh includes playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and it’s traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion.” [Butoh]
“In the 1950s, Kazuo Ohno met Tatsumi Hijikata, who inspired him to begin cultivating Butoh, originally called Ankoku Butoh, the ‘Dance of Utter Darkness’. […] He moves people deeply. Kazuo Ohno is an artist who has enlarged human potential.” Kazuo Ohno
KAZUO OHNO
Joan Brossa (1919-1998) writer/artist, key figure of Spanish avant-garde. “Poetry is a game where, under the aparent reality, appears another one unforeseen. […] Silence is the original, words are the copies. […]
Wall of Delight
Now it is a ribbon
that explodes in stars of green,
blue and red.
Now it is an arched
palm that fades
after exploding.
As soon as
the first rockets
have died, already
the second and third shine.” —JOAN BROSSA
VISUAL POETRY Concert for Stones and Traffic Lights is pure Brossa. “Brossa began writing hypnagogic images in the period immediately after the Spanish Civil War. […] Brossian scenic poetry is characterized by a break with convention and genre that is pursued in order to find new poetic possibilities for action.” Joan Brossa
JOAN BROSSA
Sergi Belbel (1963), born in Tarrasa, has been the Spanish playwright more represented in the world after Federico García-Lorca. “Influenced by contemporary European rather than Spanish or Catalan drama, his work was very different from the realist idiom favored by playwrights of the Franco generation. He also has a highly successful career as a director of Spanish, Catalan and foreign plays, and he has held the position of Artistic Director of the National Theater of Catalonia [2006-2013].” [Sergi Belbel and Catalan Theatre: Text, Performance and Identity by David George, Boydell & Brewer, London, 2010]
CONTEMPORARY THEATER Caresses world premiere took place in Barcelona. This production is Madrid premiere. A year earlier, Tilmun Teatro premiered it in Madrid university. “A striking feature of Belbel’s plays is that they defy easy categorization, for he has written in a number of different dramatic forms. Some of these belong to what one might term popular theatre or para-theatre. He belongs to an avant-garde tradition whose most obvious exponent in 20th century Spain is Ramón del Valle-Inclán, and in Catalonia, Joan Brossa.” [David George] I teatro.es
SERGI IBELBEL
01 I THEATER MAGAZINE In a first term in Madrid, in UCM, performing, and coordinating a theater program. “I met upcoming talent as actress director Natalia Menéndez, and playwrights Julio Escalada, and Pedro Víllora. In El Público theater magazine, I worked with Gerardo Fernández, Argentine opera expert; poet Juan Abeleira, journalist Rosalía Gómez; and playwright José Ramón Fernández.”
02 I TILMUN TEATRO In a second term in Madrid, in UCM, PhD and Tilmun Teatro director. Bufons coordinator, El Público writer, RTVE trainee. “The last year of university, I met three masters in memoriam: El Público director Moisés Pérez Coterillo; poet José Heredia Maya, and arts promoter Marta Tatjer. Soon after, TV producer César Gil, professor José Ramón Pérez Ornia, writer Vicente Molina Foix, and film director Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón.”
03 I EUROPEAN PROJECT In a third term in Madrid, in UC3M, European project media director, and Documentary Film mooc coproducer. “In Crossing Stages, I worked with general manager Sonsoles Herreros, artistic dtor. Sergio Blanco, dance dtor. Eva Sanz, theater dtor. Abel G. Melo; coordinators Paloma Zavala, Laura G. Cortón, Alfredo Miralles, Irene Gómez; artists Javier Gorostiza, Javier Chavarría, Eloy Segura, et al.” —PV
