Diana Lopez Soto
NOMADA is a solo performance that brings together vertical dance, rigging design, installation art and Contemporary Mexican indigenous dance. A journey inspired by personal stories of displacement, rituals of water, cycles of sustainability and the connections of our bodies to land.
NOMADA’s creation and development have involved in-depth research and fieldwork. This production is a restorative process and a gateway to connection; an experience that honors the stories of my family; our Otomi and Purepecha ancestry, our contemporary community, history and relationships to the land and culture of Michoacan, Mexico.
Thanks to the support of knowledge keepers, my mother and elders of the Community of Michoacan; I was able to participate in water rituals and ceremonies, visited family members, butterfly sanctuaries and bodies of water. The sound and video material from rivers, storms, streets, conversations, and celebrations that we gathered during these years of research; are crucial elements in the final sound composition and inspiration of movement.
NOMADA is the physical and spiritual act of renewal, affirmation, and restoration of the fragile continuous balance of the earth. The choreographic offering explores vertical dance from a single point that is counter balanced by 6 hand thrown traditional pots filled with water, corn, soil and beans. The journey of Creator starts from her interaction with each of the elements or mothers that these pots (entities) hold and their cycles. From these interactions, creator initiates the ritual of creation.
Awakening the interactions between elements from Skyworld to Underworld and Earth.
The birthing of water in the underworld if represented by a river downstage centre. In this second act and journey, creator travels across the river; balancing the subtle relationships between body, water and vessels. They represent ancestors and current relationships that support the underworld deity and travel with her across the dark waters. As vessels remain in the water, they embody the bones and spirit of Snake, Akuitsi (also known as storm).
Creator transports body and audiences across time and space to a present and spiritual dimension that requires full surrender. Balancing a sacred vessel from the Purepecha ritual of Las Aguadoras. Creator dances across the space to welcome the return of the sun and a new day.
The Moon, Sun, Snake, Ahuehuete Trees and Monarch butterflies play an important role supporting the journey across time and space. They come to live in the form of projections that represent the explosive creation of the world and her mothers. “Nomada” is a visceral experience inspired by in-depth personal research and rituals of water that seeks to initiate conversations between art and ecology. A performance that encourages the deepening of our connections with the Land and self-transformation.
