Hacienda Santa Cruz de La Rinconada (Seville) will host the XV edition of Vertebración, a contemporary dance cycle promoted by the Andalusian Association of Dance Companies and Professionals (PAD), with the support of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), an entity under the Ministry of Culture, and in collaboration with the Rinconada City Council, during the last week of May.
This is the main novelty of Vertebración this year, as it moves its usual stage from the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville to Hacienda Santa Cruz in La Rinconada, a municipality closely linked to the performing arts, particularly contemporary dance. In recent years, it has become a reference for its support of this discipline, promoting artistic residencies and programming shows and festivals.
Throughout its fifteen editions, the event has been a driver of different formats and stages, evolving according to the needs of professionals. In this new edition of Vertebración, PAD renews for the third consecutive year its collaboration with the Sevillian Jazz Association (Assejazz) to once again highlight live creation resulting from the fusion of music and dance.
After 14 years of collaboration with the Teatro de la Maestranza, ‘Vertebración’ leaves Seville’s capital to move to Hacienda Santa Cruz de La Rinconada, thanks to the partnership with the local City Council.
CREATIVE COEXISTENCE
In its fifteenth edition, the main focus of the project once again emphasizes live creation, with a five-day coexistence experience involving four dancers and three musicians under the artistic direction and guidance of independent choreographer and dancer Ana Buitrago.
Throughout that week, they will work on a series of premises to create collaboratively in the space of Hacienda Santa Cruz, culminating in a presentation to the public on Friday, May 30th at 8:30 PM at the same venue.
«One of the most interesting aspects of this project is that all the dance and music performers selected for the occasion have independent careers and are creators of their own projects. Each one has their own language. ‘Vertebración’ enables joint dialogue,» says Natalia Jiménez, from the PAD committee for this project, who is joined this year by Marco Vargas, Roberto Martínez, and Félix Arjona, in choreographic assistance.
Natalia Jiménez also points out that «Ana Buitrago, an independent choreographer and dancer, will guide the selected artists through the practice of improvisation as the artistic director. She has also collaborated on many editions of books on dance and thought and has been part of the experimental dance movement in Spain.»
«She – continues – is from Granada, but she is less known in Andalusia. We invited her to our latest edition of the MEDANZOTOA training program and felt it was an opportunity to invite her again to highlight her work and career.»
Thus, during the five days of coexistence in La Rinconada, Buitrago will provide guidelines, tools, and focal points as common points of attention for improvisation. She will create a structure that keeps the musical and dance performers in communication within the performance space.
NOTABLE NAMES
To make this project possible, PAD and Assejazz have selected a group of improvisers from contemporary music and dance who will interact and once again bring both disciplines into dialogue. The selected dancers are Zaida Ballesteros, Anna Katalin Nemeth, Raquel Madrid, and Helena Marant; along with musicians Mattia Marani, Calebe Simoes, and Rocío Guzmán. Lighting designer Carlos López Camps will also participate, overseeing the performance space.
Regarding the format of ‘IMPROVERTEBRACIÓN’, where a piece will be created in real-time, Natalia Jiménez also highlights that it is «a new challenge for both associations and an invitation to the audience’s complicity.»
«It is highly likely that all of us who will be providing choreographic assistance in the days leading up to the show will end up participating in the improvisation, turning the event into a great celebration because it is always exciting to see the combination of all the artists on stage,» she says, emphasizing the «spontaneity and camaraderie» with which this type of format works with the audience. «We invite both spectators from La Rinconada and beyond to attend,» she concludes.
