Bande á Part - A danceable event for outsiders!

Putting the intensity of dance's movement vocabulary into words, the expressive power of both is revealed: Whether dance or performance, both touch our innermost being.

A B O U T  the  P E R F OR M A N C E

This is a duo dance piece of two queer immigrants born and raised in Venezuela, a country that is deeply homophobic and without any legislation that protects the LGBTQ+ community. A country with a very conservative and sexist society, with strict gender roles and expectations, where we fought to find space for our own ways of expression, identity, freedom and safety. This in the context of a complex political situation and humanitarian crisis, where it seemed irrelevant to talk about the rights of minorities when the whole population had been suffering for so long. Being outside, we take the responsibility of starting a discussion around this problematic by showing our intimate perspective of what gender roles represent for us, how they have shaped us, and the inner and outer violence that comes with the reality of being born different. We question ourselves, what does it mean to be born a man? What does it mean to be born a woman? How do we have to behave, how do we have to move, how do we have to look like? Which roles are we supposed to fulfill? How do these roles affect the way that we relate to each other, how do they shape our intimacy? How are our beings and our personalities conditioned, sometimes limited, because we’re born one way or the other? Could it be different? What would we be if we hadn’t been raised in the mold of gender? Would we be more free, more authentic? Would we relate to each other differently, would or relationships change, would we be more vulnerable, more intimate? What is the punishment if we don’t follow these rules, and how are we conditioned by concepts as sin or guilt, when it comes to our self-expression? These questions are the motor to the creation of this piece. Using the gestures, the movement of the arms, the legs, the way we walk, we sit, we move, we interact. Working in duo and solo, we’ll try, if not to answer, at least to reflect over these questions, giving our own perspective from our experience, as one man, one woman. The original music is by the Venezuelan composer Nuwanliss.

A B O U T   N A I A  U R R E S T I 

Dancer Naia Urresti is a Venezuelan dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. From a really young age she starts her investigation of the body and performing arts through artistic gymnasts and theatre, studying acting in the Centre of Artistic Creation T.E.T. and taking part in diverse theatre workshops with Maria Fernanda Ferro, Diana Peñalver, among others. She worked as an actress in different professional projects with the Theatre Group Skena; and The Importance of being Ernest with Amentia Teatro.

A B O U T   D I O N E L  P I R E 

Dancer Dionel Pire (Dio) is a dancer, performer and choreographer with more than 10 years of experience in the dance field. Born in Coro (Falcón), Venezuela on July the 4th, 1995. He began his dance studies in Caracas, at Taller Experimental de Danza Pisorrojo in the UCV (Central University of Venezuela), training in parallel at the BALLET ARTE School Foundation, at UNEARTE (National Experimental University of the Arts), and at Voll Pilates Group and Yoga.