The Infinite Body of María Cantero on the International Dance Day in Malaga

2023-04-30 14:17:29

a few months ago the Malaga Dance Collective launched a call with the idea of ​​collecting various activities to be scheduled throughout the month of April this year. Many of them were supported by said platform, others, let’s say, this was the necessary catalyst for a group of dance professionals to offer open classes, interventions in unconventional spaces, etc. In this framework, it is where the workshop has made a hole the infinite body by Maria Cantero.

María Cantero has been mobilizing this activity for a few months in cities like Madrid and Granada, with the desire to share and promote a kind of articulation of resources that she has collected throughout her career as a professional actress and dancer. The fact is that more than imparting “innovative” content, she provided those who were her students for a morning, a series of formulas, resources and concepts that facilitated the exercise of partnering y la danza contact improvisation. An important part of these students had little experience with dance, which led María Cantero to show them that their bodies are intelligent when it comes to solving different routes that, in no way, they face in their daily lives.

Of course, the improvement of a contemporary dance technique provides us with a greater mix of resources to redirect any circumstance, including the paths that prevent us from possible injuries. However, the first thing to do, among other things, is lose the fear of falling or leave the taboo of touching each other, in parentheses. In order to allow yourself to enjoy dancing, and to realize that many of our movements would not be possible if they were not shared with a dance partner, or promoted by the other.

For those who have not yet had the opportunity to experience such contexts, whoever facilitates this type of training finds it most magical that people who until now had not shown any knowledge of dance, have “entered the game” with such predisposition, that it is a matter of time before their bodies leave for a while, the tensions where they are not necessary to activate, or why not say it, the mental resistance that makes learning anything a labyrinth to solve. Therefore, María Cantero energized a morning of celebration of International Dance Day in which each exercise combined the game with the challenge. Exercises that put the limit in every way, to what each of the participants carried with them.

Now it remains to wait for how that will manifest itself. “little seed” that María Cantero has left inside each of the participants. One of many precedents that we can take advantage of to continue revaluing dance, beyond something that is part of our cultural heritage.