Quietude

“Quietude” was part of a residency with SISU Compañía de Danza and ConnectArte Multidisciplinario Espacio.

I was fortunate to be invited to set an evening-length work with SISU Compañía de Danza, an emerging contemporary dance company based in Tijuana, Mexico. Not long after receiving the invitation, devastating events unfolded in the Middle East. Though I was physically distant, the war left an indelible mark on me. I felt both grateful for safety and weighed down by guilt, distance, and a sense of profound solitude. In the silence that followed, I found myself turning inward.

From these moments of stillness, I created Quietude. The silence tormented me by surfacing my deepest emotions, yet also comforted me by holding space for my internal unrest. The dancers and I began with conversation—stories of personal histories, memories that linger, and the inner wars that continue to shape us. Together, we explored what it means to carry heaviness while still seeking moments of connection and harmony. Despite their fleeting nature, those moments arrive mysteriously, leaving behind an undeniable spiritual imprint.

Quietude is not just a dance. It is a crafted experience for the dancers to reveal their vulnerabilities while holding sacred space for one another. It is a landscape of textures that evolves through the nuances of their relationships, creating new meaning with each passing moment. It embodies both the terror of knowing catastrophe is possible and the calm of existing in the fragile stillness before it arrives.

The rehearsal process began with sharing personal narratives, which sparked the creative exploration. From there, collaboratively generated movement emerged, ultimately shaping the composition of Quietude.

rehearsal process

creative process

The creative process began with the dancers sharing their personal narratives of war and peace, crafting a tapestry of codes to be used for the later composition. From this foundation, they generated material, shaping the landscape for the work.
collaboration

A collaboration unfolds between myself-dancer and dancer-dancer within the creative process. Through prompts, the dancers breathe life into their narratives. They were guided to sculpt dynamic connections and disconnections, influencing the evolving relationships within the work.
composition

Drawing inspiration from codes forged in the initial stages of the creative process, I assembled sections of material. This process explores the nuanced concepts of war and peace, intricately weaving a tapestry that further complicates the paradox through the strategic use of soundscapes and intentional moments of silence.