Bárbara Sánchez

Bárbara Sánchez is the name of the one who signs contracts and pays taxes. Then there are the others: all those who have been embodied along the way. They are not different, nor do they represent escapes of identity, but rather possibilities of being that have unfolded over time. The others reveal fractures and shifts of plane within an impossible self-portrait, always blurred and unfinished.

From the very beginning, she has devoted herself to observing her own reflection. There she finds necessity: from the other side, a call sometimes emerges, manifesting itself as an inevitable fall. What precedes meaning is always rapture. From that place came Isadora, La Pálida, Ella. And from there now comes Várvara, the guru of mistik bakala.

http://barbarasanchez.es

Latest project in residence

Várvara (2019) is a solo.
Or rather: Várvara is a single woman. A woman alone on stage, carrying the entire proposal through her body. This classic image within the history of dance serves as the starting point for this scenic research project dedicated to exploring the limits between choreography and ecstasy. Drawing inspiration from the idea of “choreopolitics” proposed by André Lepecki, Várvara approaches the notion of rapture. Rapture as an impulse that frees movement from any form of control or surveillance. Rapture as the possibility of a free choreography. And freedom as a mandate.

Várvara revisits the sound culture that flourished from the early 1980s in Spain’s eastern regions and became known as “bacalao music.” Beyond its later demonization, this movement opened a crack of freedom that we have since consciously chosen to silence and ignore. Around that electric, radical, and essentially affective sound, a culture emerged in which dancing was the expression of a possibility for resistance and freedom. An escape beyond the logic of day and night. Dancing until bursting.

Artistic credits
Direction, choreography, and performance: Bárbara Sánchez
Dramaturgy in collaboration with: Jaime Conde-Salazar
Assistant director: Alberto Cortés
Lighting design: Benito Jiménez
Sound space: Susana Hernández
Music: Sonido Valencia

Graner Residency Archive

  • 2019 · Open call · Várvara
  • 2018 · Collaboration with Festival Sâlmon< · Várvara

Residency videos

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