Enrique Cabrera is the director of his own company, Aracaladanza. We caught up with him whilst he was in Birmingham re-working his show DanSense, being performed in the brand new double bill Funny Bones – part of our Family Weekend.
Q: What inspired you to create DanSense?
EC: DanSense was originally created for the first International Dance Festival Birmingham in 2008. It is inspired by the five senses and is a fun exploration of how we experience the world around us through them. We work with flowers for the smell, dresses covered in spoons as we explore taste and finish with water, which, for me, stimulates all five senses!
Q: You are currently rehearsing the piece – will it change significantly from when you first created it in 2008?
EC: Well I’m working with different dancers for this performance, and I like to work with each dancer’s individual energy. Everyone has a different way of moving – even just watching people on the street they all move differently. I like to work with this individuality rather than force a particular movement on a dancer, so parts of the performance are being re-worked slightly and will change from the original piece.
Q: What age group is DanSense aimed at?
EC: It is aimed at children of all ages.
Q: Why did you choose to create a dance piece specifically for children?
EC: I create a lot of dance pieces for children and families. People need to have stimulation throughout their childhood, and throughout their whole lives really, although it is especially important for children. Dance is just one way of doing this, but is perfect for young children. A baby’s first experience of the world is through movement and sound, not through speech, so using dance and movement is the perfect way to engage them and communicate ideas and imagery.
Q: Did you dance yourself as a child?
EC: I didn’t start dancing until I was around 21 or 22. I started to do puppet theatre then and took some dance classes to help with the movement. I immediately loved it and decided that dancing was what I wanted to do, so I changed my career.
Q: What was it about dance that made you want to change your career?
EC: I could see the potential it had – although theatre was great I felt dance had even more opportunity for expression and communication. Movement is fundamental and communicates on a basic level that words can’t, and also, the body is an amazing tool to work with.
Q: What do you feel the benefits are of being involved with an event like IDFB?
EC: Any international festival, in any city around the world, is immensely important as it allows the people of that area to see so many different kinds of performances they may never see otherwise. Also a lot goes on behind the scenes at an international festival like this – co-operation between companies and dancers, sharing ideas, changing opinions and meeting new people. Many new friendships are made and can often result in new collaborations further down the line. The festival will be an amazing experience for Birmingham.
