El risc d'investigar

Abstract

This is an interview with the self-taught dancer and choreographer Cesc Gelabert. While we accompany him through his choreographies he shows us the loneliness of a long distance runner, the discoveries during the long process of creation, the collaborations and encounters with other people.

It is a continuous voyage in the present and the past, from his first casual contact with the world of dance (1969) to the premiere of Alhambra (1983); from the moment when, for the first time, he found himself dancing alone in front of an empty auditorium until the moment when, also for the first time, he danced with another star, Lydia Azzopardi; from his search for reference points, looking around  in a thousand and one courses in Catalonia and abroad which he paid for with money saved up during a whole year's word, until the time when he taught his discoveries at La Fábrica-Espai de Dansa. We go through the period of his «youth», of learning to walk, of collaborations with other performers, such as Frederic Amat, Lewis Richter, Rafael Subirachs: Acció-0, Acció-1 (Action-0, Action-1); of solitude, of running away to New York Mi viejo traje de pana (My Old Corduroy Suit), where he met Carles Santos (Cesc Gelabert & Dancers) and Perico Pastor; the return, two years later, to «motionless» Barcelona; loneliness again plata i Or (Silver and Gold); the chance meeting with Lydia Azzopardi, Danzas para interiores (Dances for Interiors); the reencounter with Carles Santos, Concert per a veu, piano i dansa (Concert for Voice, Piano and Dance); the beginning of an understanding (Alhambra, Five to Two).

The Risk of Investigating is basically a way of understanding life: investigating outside and inside oneself; it is a way of understanding dance: an archive of experiences, a reflection of life; it is an encounter with solitude.