At the XV Festival Universitario de Danza Contemporánea, Sara Alba’s seven colorful dancers took over one of the buildings of Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá. They surprised the audience with their movements, sliding, rolling and turning. The young performers were using the structure of the building to capture the attention of the observer.

Title of the piece: “Instrucciones para usar la escalera”
Director/choreographer: Sara Alba
Dancers: Katherine Rozo, Ximena Barrera, Viviana Osorno, Maria Paula Afanador, Laura Andrea Rico, Andrés Felipe Tula Monsalve and Nadya Ximena Díaz
Date: 28 of october 2011
Location: Bogotá, Colombia
Production: Politécnico Grancolombiano
Host: Asunto Público – XV Festival Universitario de Danza Contemporánea 2011

Spanish choreographer Carmen Werner visited Colombia to create the contemporary dance piece “Eternos“. She brought with her some great dancers of her group Provisional Danza.  Carmen chose to not only work with these 3 dancers from Spain, but also invited 5 Colombian dancers. In three groups the dancers performed the piece; a series of three pieces of 42 minutes. Each part based on the same choreographic concept. It resulted in three performances with very different cast but the same structure. It showed how the interpretation was giving the choreography each time a unique touch. The differences made some people in the audience even consider them as seperate works!

Below you will find foto’s of the third performance.

Dancers: Laura Barragan, Fredy Bernal and Sara Alba.
Photography: Fedor Sendak © 2011

Carmen Werner’s performances and workshops were organized by Idartes.
The performances were hosted by La Casona de la Danza in Bogotá.
More info on Carmen Wernes work at: www.provisionaldanza.com

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About Provisional Danza (SPAIN – artistic director: Carmen Werner)
Provisional Danza aimes at “unravelling our conscious and unconscious realities involving both performers and public in an expressive atmosphere”. Performances seem to create tension and a sense of expectancy and a certain sensorial agitation. In 1987, artistic director Carmen Werner created the company Provisional Danza for it to develop its own style. Since then Carmen Werner has created more than stunning 60 choreographies, 4 video-dance and short format films within this unique company.

Sara Alba participated as a dancer in the piece “Vea el Reverso para el Cuidado” by Jimena Alviar. The performances took place in September at the Teatro Camarin del Carmen in Bogotá, Colombia. The piece of Alviar is a ‘research of woman’s world, exploring the femininity in both psychological and emotional fields’. Music is original composition of Merissa Martignoni (USA).

The dance group ¨Cuerpos de Agua¨ (directed by Sara Alba) performed a duo in Cali with young and talented dancers Andrés Felipe Tula and Nadya Díaz . With this short contemporary dance piece they participated at Festival Universitario de Danza Contemporánea. This 15th edition of the unique and inspiring dance festival for students was held at the buildings of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali, Colombia. The piece was performed at a small square within the university area. “Cuerpos de Agua” is a group from the university Politécnico Grancolombiano and the dancers represented their university during the event.

Dancers: Andrés Felipe Tula Monsalve and Nadya Ximena Díaz
Director/choreographer: Sara Alba
Date: 22 of august 2011
Location: Cali, Colombia
Production: Politécnico Grancolombiano
Host: Asunto Público – XV Festival Universitario de Danza Contemporánea 2011

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Colombia-based dancer Jenny Angulo invited Sara to give a contemporary dance workshop in Bucaramanga. Below you will find the pictures from that event…
Location: ProGym Studio, Bucaramanga (Santander). Date: July 12th 2011
Photography: Fedor Sendak.

In June Sara gave a contemporary dance workshop in Istanbul (Turkey) at Çati Dans. Below you wil find some information about this unique place for contemporary dance + a link to the photo’s made during the workshop.

Çatı Dance Studio is an important location for contemporary dance in Istanbul. This kind of studio is still quiet rare in Turkey. Çatı Dans is the result of years of hard work on the part of a small group of dance artists who have chosen to freelance and is in the process of becoming an official freelance contemporary dance artists association. A great achievement in Turkey where governement policies usually focus on more traditional dance (which is also great). At Çatı Dans Sara was fortunate to give a workshop. A place full of wonderful, warm and enthousiastic people!

Website Çatı Dans Studio: www.catidans.org

Check the photo album of the workshop: Çatı Dans
photo by Fedor Sendak (www.73602.com)

see also the article in by by Elif Isikozlu in Ballet Dance Magazine:
http://www.ballet-dance.com/200409/articles/ContemporaryDanceinIstanbul.html

Sara appears briefly in the promotional video for the international day of dance.
Production: Colombian Ministry of Culture – length: 30 seconds

Mincultura invita a la celebración del Día Internacional de la Danza

Location: EFA danza. Escuela de Formación Artística
Address: Cra 18 No 50 – 48 Bogotá, Colombia.
Tel: 349 33 59  Web: Efadanza Blogspot

BOGOTÁ – New courses have started at Escuela Efa Danza.

“My class is a mixture of modern and contemporary dance techniques, including: Floor work , Release Technique and Cunningham (curves of the back). During the class we will work on the weight of the body, the muscle tone, the continuity of the movement and the projection of the body in the space using the breathing. With the technique of Contemporary Dance the dancer develops like in ballet technique different skills as the rhythm, the elasticity, the flexibility,  the coordination, the body awarness and the interpretation of the movement, among others.” – Sara Alba

BOGOTÁ – Sara started her new course at the Politécnico Grancolombiano University in Bogotá, Colombia. Below you find a video with Sara and her students plus some words by the marvelous Marybel Acavedo.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE COURSE 2011
The Contemporary Dance course by Sara Alba is focused at a type of corporal expression that is not based on the technique of classic ballet. Instead it is a class of dance in which one can explore to express, through dance, an idea, a feeling, an emotion. The class will be based on the Release technique, Cunningham and the mixture of diverse styles that will develop motoric abilities, artistic expression and creativity of the students.

More info (in spanish): www.poligran.edu.co

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