Luis A Lara Malvacías                       
 

A - 2017 

 

Originally Commissioned by: La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Premiered at: The Club at La MaMa. New York. May 19th and 20th, 2017

 

A different version of this work were performed at:

. Radial System. Berlin, Germany. July 15th and 16th, 2017. Commissioned by: Sasha Waltz & Guests

 

Created and Performed by: Luis Lara Malvacías & Jeremy Nelson

Costumes, Set and Props: Luis Lara Malvacías  

Music and Sound: Ivo Bol

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This is the website for the project

 

In A (as in Age) is part of the large-scale multi-disciplinary project, titled From A to Z. It was constructed using different strategies to investigate change, transformation, and the perception of time: two time keepers, walk at a very slow pace around the periphery of the stage for half of the duration of the work; performers transform the stage by shedding layers of clothing and hanging them in the space creating an installation of sorts; and the dancers perform their observations and manipulation of impulses that arise in the created environment.  

Another inspiration for the work – and also for many of the works from the series From A to Z - comes from Oliver Sacks’ article “ The Joy of Old Life” (Not Kidding), where he noted: “I often feel that life is about to begin, only to realize that it is almost over.”

 

From a review about A Viereinhalb Sätze said: "The second piece begins on the other side of the room, in a new landscape: a beautiful textured backdrop of painted paper and bird-shaped cut-outs, dim lighting, hooks dangling from the already low ceiling, two characters obscured in black plastic who count the passage of time with their slow but ceaseless journey around the circumference of the stage. Here Nelson and Malvacias dive and twirl, float and fall asunder, disrobing to create ghosts, black garments hanging darkly, empty and striking upon the teeth of hooks before, at last, an image of a tree, projected, brings everything to a close. Powerful male bodies presented not as threat but as inquiry, sorrow, yearning, compassion, balance….“ From Review “A” and “D” at Radialsystem V in Berlin by Viereinhalb Sätze, Four point Five: Writing on Dance.