Desierto de Tela (Mira B)
By Verónica Santiago & Michael Amacio
Perla Stone’s primary influence for creation is nature. Their practice studies the body immersed in natural spaces in effort to acknowledge its own essence. Environments that display organic movement between the sun, reflections and vibration are at the core of inspiration behind this project. To look deeper in the harmony of the elements speak to the rhythm of the senses and emotions. Through archival of sound and movement practices, Perla Stone highlights the elements in physical and audible form through film, field recordings, poetry and performance. Perla Stone is a collaboration between choreographer Verónica Santiago Moniello and composer, Michael Amacio.
Desierto de Tela (Mira B) (2020) Desierto de tela (mira B) From contact and closeness, we create the conditions for a dance, in which we explore how to transform the volume and consistency of the body towards a disembodied universe from sensuality and care. Desierto de tela, It is the name that brings together two dance videos, or unfinished film divided into parts or sides. Edited with the idea of expressing the subtle differences that exist between them, "look A and look B," are two sides of the same coin, dances or invocations in collaboration with the dancer, Orlando Rodríguez, and the composer Michael Amacio. Filmed in -dinsky house- Germany, from the memory we share during the residency at “Arts Printing House” (Vilnius-Lithuania). We explore the concept of polarity, from the cellular bodies, with notions such as: vaporous, tenuous and subtle matter, time to rest, and utopias. From the intimate contact we question how alone we can be in a type of daily ritual. We trace the memory of the room, imagining an exercise in retribution or a dance to protect and clean the space and remove or charge the energy. We wish to explore the other worldly spaces. Maria Sabina "into the depths of darkness because it is infinite and you don't even have to close your eyes".
About the artists -
Verónica Santiago Moniello
Verónica is a Venezuelan choreographer and dancer currently residing between the south of México and New York. She holds an M.F.A. Master of Fine Arts in the Theatre & Dance Program at UCSD, the University of California San Diego (U.S.) and a B.A. in Dance Making by the Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen (Germany), where she was part of Pina Bausch’s “Le Sacre Du Printemps” repertoire. Her practice is inspired by the spatial disorientation in dialogue with memory, notions like birth, antagonistic subjects of resistance and utopian bodies permeated with dreams. Her current approach expresses the relationship between absence versus alkaline practices: between beneficial acts, rituals and dances. Her projects have been presented in Mexico, Venezuela, Belize, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Spain, Korea and the U.S. Ongoing research “The Body that has Been Possessed” awarded by the Tinker Fellowship, CILAS (Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies) and The Friends of California, Teatro La Rendija, tumàka't Dance Company, Fonca and RedAlterna in Mérida-Yucatán, Mexico and Fundación Andrógino in Venezuela
Michael Amacio
Born in NYC, Michael Amacio is known as a composer, live audio engineer and event producer.He received his Bachelor's Degree in Audio Production at The State Univeristy of New York, Purchase College. While at Purchase, Michael studied composition under Pulitzer Prize Nominated Composer Joel Thome. As a composer, his piece “Field Manipulations” performed in 2016 at Fridman Gallery, utilized multi-channel field recordings and playback through an 8-channel audio system. Michael is currently expanding on this idea in Yucatan Mexico, researching different techniques of documenting sound with various microphones in different spatial formations. In 2017 he created the experimental music project, Omphalos, with fellow friend and musician Matthew Robinson. With modular synthesis, Michael manipulates the sounds of Matthews cello live, creating ambient and timbrel textures in aperiodic form. They’ve had the opportunity to share the same bill with artists such as experimental music heavyweights Lawrence English, and Alessandro Cortini.