Translator: Gisela Giardino Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
It's quite some time since I last danced.
(Background music starts)
Do you think I'm dancing?
Do you believe that the dancers speak?
Dancers and choreographers tell stories,
but with our body.
Let's assume for a moment
that I have the twisted idea of talking about infinity.
Or better yet, of showing it onstage.
What we are dancing
is the end of my first work as a choreographer,
Mandelbrot Land.
Who is Mr. Mandelbrot?
Let's leave that for later.
Let's assume for a moment
that I want to talk about infinity.
For that I will take the time
to create this recursive organization.
That is, it is repeated indefinitely.
Two dancers mark two points in space
and a third one is located exactly in the middle.
And so on.
Indefinitely.
Ad infinitum.
Another idea I had, to tell with the body,
was to represent time onstage.
So I created Rotonda,
a circular space that speaks of time.
I organized it from very simple rules:
counter-clockwise circulation,
always turning left.
I added to these movements
concentric orbits
and travels along the diameters.
Thus, the parties began to resemble the whole
and they gave meaning to an idea.
An idea of time retracing its steps,
an eternal return.
What if we focus now
in one single orbit and diameter
and then fall exactly towards the center?
Santiago, Facu, please stop.
(Background music stops)
In the traditional way,
inherited from classical dance,
the choreographer creates starting from the music sheet.
In my case, I submit to a search
for structures that are associated with ideas,
ideas that make the dance emerge.
Therefore light, music, scenery,
costumes, everything -- they create a network
along with the choreography.
Fede, light please.
Music.
(Background music)
How about if we now work
with another idea?
Do you think that the dancer's body
is a technology?
Aren't all our bodies?
I learned this exercise while I still was a dance student.
I was about 30-31 years old
and I was a mathematics teacher.
Yes, I started dancing at the age
in which others are already thinking of retiring.
I like it because it's like a game.
We call it Following the Leader.
The organization happens
thanks to the many numbers
making up the exercise.
Not because of the difficulty of the movements.
We are a small number,
for this idea to be well understood.
So, I'm calling five volunteers.
Volunteers, please.
Come here.
It has to do with following those in front of you.
Come on, without fear.
You have to follow the movements.
Just that.
Try to keep the distance between each other,
and follow the movements.
It happened when I was a physics student.
And by then I had a scholarship
to research on acoustic emission
in composite materials.
Then I realized that the physics lab
was not the place to tell my ideas.
And then I decided
to do something
I always secretly wanted:
take dance lessons.
You are doing it very well,
but I think that we are still
an insufficient number
for this exercise, this idea-exercise
to have power.
Very good, the new dancers are getting excited.
But I'm going to ask you
to return to your places
because I want to do this exercise
with all of you.
It's simple, do not panic.
I repeat the rules.
It's about following whoever is next to you.
The other condition is to observe
the distance among you.
We have this already solved
because you are all located in armchairs.
So I'm going to ask you all
to stand up.
All of us who can, stand up.
Those in the front row
will follow the dancers.
Those in the second row
have to follow
those in the first row.
And so on,
throughout the entire gallery.
Front row, the dancers.
Second row, the front row.
And so on.
Not everyone should follow the dancers,
but those in the first row only.
That's it, come on.
Those at the back, I don't see you.
Come on, following the movements.
Very good.
That's it.
Simple, everyday movements.
They can work very well.
Greeting, for example.
Stretching, nodding.
If we repeat, we repeat with a difference.
We always try to innovate.
It's much better than I imagined.
It's an excellent game
because we are all players.
And we are all leaders.
It was a little over a year
that I returned from a grant in France,
for research and improvement in dance.
At that moment
I felt that my days as a dancer
were numbered.
But suddenly,
I realized that a universe of possibilities
arose in my hands.
And endless ideas
to tell with the body
spread out before me.
This body,
all our bodies in motion,
as we have just seen,
are a means to develop
and communicate ideas.
Ideas as diverse as time,
infinity, self-organization
of a large group of people.
Today, here, we all
have put our bodies
and ideas into action.
(Applause)