Dance Limerick Percolate Artistic Residency invited WECreate Productions to create a new screendance at their facilities August 26 – September 6, 2019.
WECreate Memories
“Memory takes a lot of poetic license, it omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart.”
Tennessee Williams
link to dance limerick percolate residency
When Heike Salzer and I created the trans-Atlantic collaborative group WECreate Productions, we did it based on our shared interest in site-specific screendance production, our interest in experimentation, collaboration and our shared experience as immigrants. Heike left Germany 18 years ago, I left Mexico 20 years ago. Our constant yearning for home is reflected in our work. Re-location has provided us with critical distance and with deeper appreciation for home, family, identity and traditions.
Based on Gaston Bachelard’s quote: “Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.”
We will explore their city with our impressionable foreigners’ eyes, and create material based on our sensations. Our collaboration aims to blend the lines between dance, video, visual/textile design and storytelling through a site-specific exploration.
We would like to explore the theme of memories and place, more specifically, memories fueled by the city of Limerick.
During our previous works, we have explored the way in which the environment affects our movement, both from the dancers and the cinematographer’s perspective. In Re-creating memories, we would also like to add the element of spoken or written word from members of the community. The movement creation will be a response to the environment, and also, a response to the impressions, memories and remarks that the local people have of their own city. The movement will be a response to any observation, memory, or statement that members of the community would like to share with us. Maybe the description of their favorite bench, park, building, tree in the City; Maybe something that makes them proud to be from Limerick; Or their most precious memories in the city; Or why Limerick should be European Cultural Capital in 2020.
One of our objectives is to create a visual/aural metaphor of Limerick that merges the appreciation from locals and foreigners alike. This account of the city will blend visuals, text, and sound in an attempt to feature an intimate view of Limerick through the eyes of the screendance artists. The voice of the locals viewed through the lens of collaborative arts production. Furthermore, we will ask the participants to view the short vignettes that we will be creating inspired by the city’s smells, lines, shadows, objects and materials with the hope that they re-discover aspects of their city. Once again their words will be selected to be part of the material. Additionally, our team will be also creating their own memories in Limerick, closing the full circle.
The team: Dancers/choreographers: Michelle Nance, Heike Salzer; Fashion Designer: Robert Burton; Camera and editor: Ana Baer; Directors: Ana Baer & Heike Salzer
anabaer 