la intrusa myrian gartzia
I myrian gartzia Damian Muñoz and Virginia Garcia, of La Intrusa group, have won the 2015 Spanish Dance Prize. They are from Gasteiz but they both went abroad to develop their creativity; at present they live in both Barcelona and in Milan and develop their dance and creative work there. This year it’s 20 years since La Intrusa dance troupe was founded and the anniversary and the Spanish prize found Virginia and Damian at work. They opened their latest work, Mud Gallery/ Azal Ederreko
Animaliak, in December at Donostia’s Gazteszena.
“Our starting point is people’s ruins and destruction which – thanks to each person accepting themselves and starting a transformation process – become beautiful scars. It’s destruction, but we want to make it beautiful destruction”, Virginia and Damian tell us about Mud Gallery. Inevitability, imperfection, variables, not just accepting everything, seeing ugly things as beautiful and speaking about mistakes with admiration... These are the things which La Instrusa’s new work tells us about. “Our feelings and sensations do not make us beautiful; our determination to face up to it does that for us”, says Virginia. “For us Mud Gallery is an experience more than anything else. It’s been a long process, based on creative factors and things from life: we needed a challenge. For one thing, for movement and, in that way, decoding things imposed by other bodies in order to grow as creators and interpreters. At the end of the day, creating tools and going deep into our imaginations in order to be able to put it on stage¨.
The Spanish prize caught them when they were deep in that process. At first “we were astonished, we weren’t expecting it”, La Intrusa says but “it gave us encouragement to go on, pushed us forwards. Often you don’t know where your work is going to take you and, because of that, we’re really grateful to receive such a big prize”, Virginia continues. Above all, in the jury’s words, La Intrusa was awarded the prize because it has invented a new dance language. The tools the Gasteiz dance troupe uses are words and live music, giving their dance narrative and meaning. “We accept everything which the need to express things tells us to use. When we put a scene together, anything is possible. Dance in itself is another tool, amongst other options”, the dancer goes on. Creating new languages “is almost our daily bread”, she continues. “More than creating new languages, we create and develop our own. To an extent, it’s provoking creation. Sometimes they’re slight variants with come without our realising it, but new codes and structures form when we pull those threads. We’re very demanding with ourselves and we try to keep our creativity in itself in a continual situation of provocation¨.
La Intrusa’s prize has almost gone unnoticed in the Basque Country. When they’re booked – which is seldom – they come back home. But, thanks to the universal language of dance, they go on international tours over Europe and America. “The performing arts have rootlessness in their DNA. Theatres, audiences, festivals, companies... they don’t come to your house, you have to go out to them. At rst you’re curious, it’s a wish to learn that takes you away from home. But supporting dancers and creative people is worthwhile and necessary; although they grow and develop abroad, they have to feel that they get support from back home and, in that way, they’ll be able to share their careers and move forwards¨.
Animaliak, in December at Donostia’s Gazteszena.
“Our starting point is people’s ruins and destruction which – thanks to each person accepting themselves and starting a transformation process – become beautiful scars. It’s destruction, but we want to make it beautiful destruction”, Virginia and Damian tell us about Mud Gallery. Inevitability, imperfection, variables, not just accepting everything, seeing ugly things as beautiful and speaking about mistakes with admiration... These are the things which La Instrusa’s new work tells us about. “Our feelings and sensations do not make us beautiful; our determination to face up to it does that for us”, says Virginia. “For us Mud Gallery is an experience more than anything else. It’s been a long process, based on creative factors and things from life: we needed a challenge. For one thing, for movement and, in that way, decoding things imposed by other bodies in order to grow as creators and interpreters. At the end of the day, creating tools and going deep into our imaginations in order to be able to put it on stage¨.
The Spanish prize caught them when they were deep in that process. At first “we were astonished, we weren’t expecting it”, La Intrusa says but “it gave us encouragement to go on, pushed us forwards. Often you don’t know where your work is going to take you and, because of that, we’re really grateful to receive such a big prize”, Virginia continues. Above all, in the jury’s words, La Intrusa was awarded the prize because it has invented a new dance language. The tools the Gasteiz dance troupe uses are words and live music, giving their dance narrative and meaning. “We accept everything which the need to express things tells us to use. When we put a scene together, anything is possible. Dance in itself is another tool, amongst other options”, the dancer goes on. Creating new languages “is almost our daily bread”, she continues. “More than creating new languages, we create and develop our own. To an extent, it’s provoking creation. Sometimes they’re slight variants with come without our realising it, but new codes and structures form when we pull those threads. We’re very demanding with ourselves and we try to keep our creativity in itself in a continual situation of provocation¨.
La Intrusa’s prize has almost gone unnoticed in the Basque Country. When they’re booked – which is seldom – they come back home. But, thanks to the universal language of dance, they go on international tours over Europe and America. “The performing arts have rootlessness in their DNA. Theatres, audiences, festivals, companies... they don’t come to your house, you have to go out to them. At rst you’re curious, it’s a wish to learn that takes you away from home. But supporting dancers and creative people is worthwhile and necessary; although they grow and develop abroad, they have to feel that they get support from back home and, in that way, they’ll be able to share their careers and move forwards¨.
