Pere Fornes
Squareonenews entertainment
The Scottish company The Curve Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday with a production by four choreographers. Ana Luján Sánchez was one of them, together with Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe and Ross Copper, artistic director of The Curve Foundation.
Ana, originally from Valencia, Spain, was awarded the Best Female Contemporary Artist award by the British Critic’s Circle in 2003 as well as the Artes Escénicas award by the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) in 2006.
We met with Ana before the performance to learn what brought her to the UK and what her relationship with The Curve Foundation is. “I started dancing when I was six and I also did gymnastics and judo. I soon had to decide between the three of them and I chose ballet. When I was ten I started to realise that I really enjoyed going to ballet classes. By the age of 14 I had decided that I wanted to be a professional dancer and I had also realised that dancing wasn’t a professional career in Spain.”
There was only one professional company in Spain, the Compañía Nacional de Danza. She went to an audition there at the age of 15 but couldn’t get in because she was too young. “I then started talking to my parents and teachers about the possibility to go to England to get into a professional dance company because in Spain I couldn’t get a job. I applied for the Rambert School in London and they accepted the application so I came to England in September 1994.”
She stayed in the school for a year and a half, until the director of the Rambert Dance Company offered her a contract in 1995, when she was 19, and she stayed there until August 2006 working with international choreographers.
In 2005 she choreographed a solo called “Cervantes” for a workshop. Ross Copper, director of The Curve Foundation liked it and bought it for the company. Ana came to Edinburgh to re choreograph the solo with The Curve Foundation. “We held an audition and I had to choose two guys for the solo. After that, they have been performing the piece for the last three years.
“It was a solo danced while the audience was coming in the auditorium, before the show started. Normally the audience is down and watches the dancer. This solo is about the physical struggle that a dancer has to go through, and the mental concentration, to overcome the fact that she is looking at the audience as they walk through to get into the theatre. The dancer is a spectator, as well as a dancer.”
After dancing professionally for 14 years, Ana also likes directing. “I like dance because it is a way of expressing what I feel, because is very internal, and I share it with the audience and colleagues. Now I am in the stage where I want to share my knowledge and experience with younger dancers. But I also like to direct my ideas or projects with other artists.”
At present she works with the Leeds-based company Phoenix Dance Theatre.
http://www.analujansanchez.co.uk/.
o
Squareonenews entertainment
The Scottish company The Curve Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday with a production by four choreographers. Ana Luján Sánchez was one of them, together with Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe and Ross Copper, artistic director of The Curve Foundation.
Ana, originally from Valencia, Spain, was awarded the Best Female Contemporary Artist award by the British Critic’s Circle in 2003 as well as the Artes Escénicas award by the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) in 2006.
We met with Ana before the performance to learn what brought her to the UK and what her relationship with The Curve Foundation is. “I started dancing when I was six and I also did gymnastics and judo. I soon had to decide between the three of them and I chose ballet. When I was ten I started to realise that I really enjoyed going to ballet classes. By the age of 14 I had decided that I wanted to be a professional dancer and I had also realised that dancing wasn’t a professional career in Spain.”
There was only one professional company in Spain, the Compañía Nacional de Danza. She went to an audition there at the age of 15 but couldn’t get in because she was too young. “I then started talking to my parents and teachers about the possibility to go to England to get into a professional dance company because in Spain I couldn’t get a job. I applied for the Rambert School in London and they accepted the application so I came to England in September 1994.”
She stayed in the school for a year and a half, until the director of the Rambert Dance Company offered her a contract in 1995, when she was 19, and she stayed there until August 2006 working with international choreographers.
In 2005 she choreographed a solo called “Cervantes” for a workshop. Ross Copper, director of The Curve Foundation liked it and bought it for the company. Ana came to Edinburgh to re choreograph the solo with The Curve Foundation. “We held an audition and I had to choose two guys for the solo. After that, they have been performing the piece for the last three years.
“It was a solo danced while the audience was coming in the auditorium, before the show started. Normally the audience is down and watches the dancer. This solo is about the physical struggle that a dancer has to go through, and the mental concentration, to overcome the fact that she is looking at the audience as they walk through to get into the theatre. The dancer is a spectator, as well as a dancer.”
After dancing professionally for 14 years, Ana also likes directing. “I like dance because it is a way of expressing what I feel, because is very internal, and I share it with the audience and colleagues. Now I am in the stage where I want to share my knowledge and experience with younger dancers. But I also like to direct my ideas or projects with other artists.”
At present she works with the Leeds-based company Phoenix Dance Theatre.
http://www.analujansanchez.co.uk/.
o
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