Toni Jodar. Photo: Tristán Pérez Martín
Held on 24 Apr 2019
While he explains the history of dance through his own history, in his body he shows the traces of other bodies, bringing forth accounts, schools and trends.
Bàrbara Raubert
As part of the performing arts program designed in collaboration with Teatros del Canal, the Museo Reina Sofía presents A Dance Lectureby Toni Jodar, anticipating the organisation of International Dance Day.
The piece – educational and an autobiographical account – approaches contemporary dance from a broad perspective, centring on its practical and historical side so as to bring it closer to audiences of every kind. Thus, the Catalan dancer and choreographer combines on stage a spoken and illustrated explanation with the danced movement.
On this occasion, Jodar retrieves his experiences as performer, dancer and artist to build a playful and didactic yet reflexive narrative which pivots on aspects that, over time, have defined and laid down what we know as contemporary dance. The nakedness of the body, hybridisation and eclecticism on stage, the crossover and dialogue with other artistic disciplines, an emphasis on the dimension of performance and the use of words, these are just some of the themes to have shaped dance over the past fifty years and are those which Jodar sets out to dissect, translate and, in the most direct sense of the word, explain.
With this intention, he recovers archive images, projecting them on stage and generating a documentary situation which is also current, seeing how his then-and-now body converses. Thus, the weight and imprint of time in dance and the dancer are emphasised, with this autobiographical vision articulated with and joined by allusions to the sphere of international choreography, such as dance-theatre ranging from Mary Wigman to Pina
Bausch, and to local accounts, making them more complex and pluralising them by calling together other voices, trajectories and textures.
A Dance Lecture maintains the research conducted in a previous work, Toni Jodar Explains Modern and Contemporary Dance, presented in the Museo in December 2016.
Support
Cultura Ajuntament de Mataró, L’Estruch Sabadell y Sismògraf Olot
Contributors
L’Animal a l’Esquena, El Graner, Centre de Creació del Cos i el Moviment, Centre National Danse Paris, Art-Club Shanghai, La Caldera, Centre creació de Dansa, Paso a dos y Fabra i Coats Fàbrica de Creació de Barcelona
Project funded by
Generalitat de Catalunya, Ajuntament de Barcelona e INAEM
Curatorship
Isabel de Naverán
In collaboration with
Organised by
Museo Reina Sofía
In collaboration with
Participants
Toni Jodar (Barcelona, 1954) is a performer, dancer and choreographer. He is the co-director and performer of BdDANSA / Explica Danza (2002), a programme for the creation and training of audiences offered in both Mercat de les Flors and Gran Teatre del Liceu, and other centres, in Barcelona. Responsible for the stage performance movement of Carles Santos (1998–2010), he also collaborated in the educational service of the Auditori de Barcelona and created the choreography and stage direction of Metàl·lics para Spanish Brass Luur Metalls and El poble de vent i de fusta.
Credits
Script: Toni Jodar and Helena Tornero
Dramaturgy: Helena Tornero
Mise en scène: Àlex Serrano and Helena Tornero
Images: Àlex Serrano and Jordi Soler
Lighting: Llorenç Parra
Research and content development: Toni Jodar and Bàrbara Raubert
Communication: Sara Peralta and La Taula
Management support and production: Marta Domènech
Artistic production and co-director: Beatriu Daniel
Co-producer: Mercat de les Flors
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