TOT

Tamara Cubas (Uruguay) - Offering for a Monster

Dance students of the Academy of Theatre and Dance free themselves from their inner monster in an unparalleled improvisation project

The spectacular improvised performances by renowned Uruguayan choreographer and video artist Tamara Cubas focus on encounters between people from different social and cultural backgrounds. In Offering for a Monster, she works with a large group of dance students to free them from their fears and blockades.

Being young, Cubas believes, is a kind of clash between past, present, and future. As a result of that clash, an enormous amount of energy is released – ‘the monster’. In fact, ‘the monster’ can be anything that the participants are afraid of. To surrender to the monster is to open oneself to the abyss of the unknown. What she is trying to bring about is a change in mindset: how can the participants deal with each other in a loving way, looking for connection while maintaining their individuality?

It is an intensive project lasting no less than eight days – eight hours a day – with a group of 50 to 55 young people who are studying Dance at the Academy for Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam.

In 2016, her performance Multitud was one of the highlights of Julidans 2016. Sixty to eighty dancers, actors, circus artists and other professional and amateur performers from Amsterdam and the surrounding area put on a compelling physical spectacle. During rehearsals, Cubas lays down some broad outlines, but the participants have to find out for themselves how to get there every performance. Every time, this results in a new, dynamic group choreography, driven by the choices each performer makes on the spot.

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