In Complete Revolution, the spin becomes a revolutionary gesture of resistance, a simple and recognisable gesture holding a mystery that makes it universal. This dance piece unfolds before the audience the journey of an ancestral body that ends up disintegrating into darkness. The continuous spin is the necessary momentum for that revolution to be, above all, internal.
Infinitely repeated and interconnected beginnings and endings have marked the latest experiences of La Gualtero, an artist born in Barcelona to a Colombian father. She culminates her exploration of the rotation with a dance piece intended for theatres: Complete Revolution. In it, the dancer and choreographer transforms the spin into a symbol of human expression and, by applying it to her own body, she turns her gaze toward her own roots.
Complete Revolution unfolds before the audience in three parts inhabited by a single, transforming body. It starts at ground level, from where an almost primal presence emerges, like a body that has yet to learn to be human. Then, in the second part, the core of the work unfolds, focusing on the spin and all its formal possibilities. Here, we already see how that body, with a single gesture, directly penetrates the audience’s imagination. Like the dancer herself, the piece invites us to let ourselves be carried away by the repetitive movement and enter into a trance that is hard to rationalise. The deep and radical nature of the gesture opens the door to a spiritual feeling that gradually ascends to another level. Finally, in the third part, we abandon the body that has accompanied us, and the spin disintegrates before our eyes as a metaphor for the cosmos. In the midst of the universe, that body we have seen being born disintegrates in the darkest night ever.
This three-part journey is integrated within a visual space designed by Arnau Sala and a sound space created by Alejandro Da Rocha, whose interference and interaction stimulate the experience of La Gualtero with the audience. Light and sound are intimately linked to the choreography, accentuating the more contemplative nature of the work.
The starting point for Complete Revolution is the short piece “360°,” a creation that questions the collective and the popular, conceived for public spaces and inspired by the simple desire for enjoyment. This impulse takes me back to my first steps in dance, when I was a child in Ibagué, Colombia, and I began to spin with the typical local skirt, “la pollera”. I was fascinated by the possibility of delving deeper into a single movement -the spin-, which is, to my mind, the most horizontal and universal. We all know how to spin, and many of us enjoyed doing it as children. In that amusement, I find something very close to spirituality. 360° is a complete revolution: a journey into an inner world, which I discovered dancing in the street, with a good dose of risk and ecstasy. This playful impulse has evolved into Complete Revolution: a dance piece intended for theatres, where the spatial arrangement and the use of lighting are an active part of the choreography, tracing a path that transforms the audience’s perception of what they are seeing. Here, the spin transcends the playful to become a gesture of revolutionary resistance. The movement seeks no direction or centre: just the momentum. Just the inner force that pulls us toward disappearance and ultimate liberation.
La Gualtero
Direction and Dance: Raquel Gualtero / Technical Direction and Lighting Design: Arnau Sala / Assistant Direction: Lipi Hernández / Original Music and Sound Design: Alejandro da Rocha / Vocal Coaching: Nikita Val / Costume Design: Marina Pujadas / Dramaturgy Assistance: Albert Pérez / Video Creation: Sínoca
Acknowledgements: Raquel Klein, Handcoded, Pere Faura, Rodrigo Rammsy, Olga Alvarez
A production by Elclimamola.
With the support of: Department of Culture of the Government of Catalonia and OSIC Research and Creation Grants, Fabra i Coats (Barcelona), Nave del Duende (Cáceres), La Caldera (Barcelona).