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Carmen Muñoz

My friends, or those who see me dance with affection, say that I am always “plugged in.” And yes, I am motivated and fascinated by dance in its most artisanal sense. I love to think of it as a fabric or network that supports both bodies and thoughts (which are the same thing) and expands knowledge. If I had to define myself, I would say that I am a performer, creator, teacher, and researcher. But I believe that I am, and that we all are, much more than that. I feel very identified with everything related to the process, with the experience of exposing oneself to passing through there, navigating the surroundings of the danced subject, and pursuing critical thinking about it. Certainties do not attract me, and every day I remind myself that we are here dancing without the need to obtain a product or a result with commercial value. I prefer to wander. I am drawn to the peripheries and contours. I understand practice as my way of living and trying to understand what is happening. I am interested in everything that does not quite fit anywhere.

I consider myself a hybrid body, dedicated and rigorous, with an open gaze that surfs between dance and flamenco without needing to choose. I love dance and I love flamenco, but I need to approach them through context; in this way, I find a closer and more grounded logic. With this research, I would like to touch a more peripheral place and be accompanied by artists whom I deeply admire for their rigor and ways of doing things: Esther Solé Alarcón and Derek Van den Bulcke.

Residency project

Invocaciones boleras o la danza de los desposeídos arises from the desire to investigate the language of the bolero school, one of the traditional disciplines within Spanish dance, in bodies of contemporary dance. (The term contemporary dance is borrowed from the experimental dance of Argentina in the 60s, with the interest of naming a danced and contemporary practice that is both experimental and experiential, and that questions itself with a longing for transformation). With this focus in mind, this project aims to move away from the established surface and “re-search” this dance in its deepest essence and its relationship with pre-flamenco and bolero dances. To do this, the figure of the legendary dancer Carmencita Dauset is established as the catalyst and starting point.

All of this aims to be traversed from the concept of invocation, “a call for help in a formal or ritual manner,” which has accompanied Carmen Muñoz in her research over the years, declaring her will to approach the invisible, the mysterious, and the unnameable contained in dance. An artistic and performative investigation that focuses on the body itself, understanding it as a vessel of vessels that contain materials and experiences, memories and archives, politics and histories.

Residency archive Graner

  • 2024 · Art Factories Bcn Crea open call · Invocaciones boleras o la danza de los desposeídos
  • 2023 · open call (creation modality) ·  Invocation