Direct me

Direct Me premiered on 2014, at ‘Switch’, an NDT dancers’ production. Performed by Yukino Takaura and Fernando Troya and the spoken-word artist Andy Smart.

Direct Me emerges from the need of expressing something else than mere movement. It was the first time I tried to choreograph, intending to talk about a specific matter: social rules, corruption, society, materialism… At the time, it was the first exploration I did, it was the beginning of my curiosity as a maker. Being in the studio, wondering how to tell people what I was feeling and thinking, struggling to translate thoughts and ideas into movement. I did find a very interesting way of communicating my thoughts: through text. I collaborated with Andy Smart, a spoken-word artist who helped me transmit the ideas behind the piece. Ever since my interest in text, acting and physical theatre grew bigger.

Some bits of the text (2014):

You were born, played, doubted. And behind your back they pulled out your skin and dressed you up with fear. They throw you into a spiral of prejudices and rules: what to wear, how to behave, to buy, where, when… Wrapped in the scar of your body…

Did you ever ask yourself if there was space to draw your own path? Look at the trail you leave behind. It is the Vestige of the chains that represent the oppression you never dare to question because of your stupid need for acceptance.

They baptise you without your consent, preaching ephemeral fairytales where nudity, sex and pleasure were condemn. the grey of the sky, has enough sadness and desperation. Give me color in your way of thinking, imagination. Make me laugh, please. We call this emotional death: a kind of death that happens before the physical death a kind of death caused by a cancerous fear, fear of pain, and failure.

I didn’t know I was dead.

I walked empty, without risking, without communicating, unable to enjoy the gift of trust.