USA Projects

danza_digital v2.0 creates dance for the Internet as dancers and audiences interact through technology. This project offers a multiplicity of options to create choreography that is simultaneously personal and public, bringing the art of dance to a wide audience, from children to adults, performed in their own very personal space and available time using the Internet.

The goal of this project is to pursue further possibilities of interaction between movement and technology in order to offer a completely interactive choreography, where the spectator becomes the collaborator for the final creation of a work of dance. danza_digital v2.0 offers the opportunity for the user to manipulate the sequence of the choreography, changing the speed, repetitions, camera angles and camera distance. The user will also be able to change the appearance of the website interface by manipulating backgrounds, window sizes, colors and design elements, depending on their own personal preferences. This project is the continuation of danza_digital (www.danzadigital.com).

The theme of this proposal is the metaphor of the mirror, as the camera lens converts itself into a type of mirror that reflects movements and transports them to an even larger mirror that is the computer screen. This idea of the mirror has been a subject that has always intrigued me and that has always played an important role in the mythology, superstition and folklore of many cultures. The concept of the mirror as an object that can duplicate, distort and reshape as used in this work is inspired by the myth of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, whose name in Nahuatl means “smoking mirror,” a name which refers to the black obsidian mirror once used by Aztec priests to foretell the future. He is the god of the nocturnal sky, god of the ancestral memory, god of time and the Lord of the North, the embodiment of change through conflict. Tezcatlipoca was an all-important god to the Aztec people and one of his most revered attributes was the ability to shape-shift. 

I am a contemporary dancer, choreographer and media artist that has been working professionally for 10 years. My work has developed in close collaboration with other artistic disciplines, such as film, media arts, music and performance, allowing me a new approach to movement expression and the art of choreographing, challenging my ideas and ways of perceiving dance. The last 5 years I been working closely with technology, video and media artists; the results have strongly impacted my development as a choreographer. My most recent work, danza_digital (digital_dance), a dance created for the Internet, was a great opportunity for me to experience the Internet as a medium of creation.

I wish to continue my development as a dance creator for the Internet and to build on everything that I have learned from this experience. This very new field of dance creation offers rich opportunities for my art to reach different audiences in cyberspace. I consider it crucial to my development as an artist that I continue this work. danza_digital v2.0 has received the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) Fund for the Arts Grant with $4,200 which will go towards supporting artistic fees of the programmer and dancer, performance studio rental and costumes. The total expense to achieve this project is $8,300. Your contribution will go towards the rent of the cameras and lighting equipment, as well as the filmmaker's artistic fees.

Thank you for your interest and much appreciated support.