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Crossing many borders
International artist explores line between dance, theater and improv
by Stew Mosberg
A performance by dancer Adriana Cubides is unique; each time she improvises on the spot. Two words that best describe her art form are empirical and ephemeral, because her dances are about experience and experiment, and they are temporary.
As a performance artist, the 39 year-old Cubides thinks of her art differently than most others. Her work is not tangible, nor is it owned by her, it belongs to the audience.
Having performed six times in Durango since taking up residence here in early 2013, Cubides has engendered an adoring following. Most recently, she kicked off the Durango Arts Center’s “Down the Rabbit Hole” exhibition in a pre-taped, highly energetic romp through the entire space. Attendees gathered in the lobby before the show’s opening to view the tape and listen to Cubides’ breathless narrative before they entered the gallery. Prior to her Rabbit Hole “recital,” Cubides conducted a collaborative piece in the Main Avenue window of Studio &, where willing participants paid for the privilege of being seated and blind folded while the dancer moved around them creating, as one participant described, “an energy field that was a sensory time warp.”
Cubides has performed several times at Studio &, arguably the most experimental art venue in Durango. The link doesn’t end there, however. Cubides first came to Studio & through a recommendation by Paul Booth, associate director of art at Fort Lewis College, where Cubides sought a teaching position. Her first encounter at Studio & was with resident-artist Shay Lopez, who would, in time, become her husband.
The dancer’s background is as fascinating as her performances and apparently was the driving force for her future in theater. Born in Austria to a mother who was a translator and a father who was an orchestra conductor, Cubides showed an early interest in the dramatic arts and loved to sing and dance. When she was 12, her family migrated to Bogota, Columbia, where she studied languages and literature before returning to Austria at age 23. There, she promptly enrolled in the Institute of Dance Arts, in Linz, where she worked with some of the most celebrated choreographers in Europe.
It wasn’t long before teachers discovered Cubides’ unique talent, and she was encouraged to stray from the rigors of tradition. Her first recital was a precursor to the performances she gives today – highly energetic and verbal. The evolution of her style led to collaborations with acclaimed European choreographers and filmmakers and ultimately award-winning performances for children.
By her own admission, Cubides is never sure where her performance will lead because her focus is on how to find a new way to express emotions and communicate through the body. “There is one constant in life,” she says, “Everything is always changing,” and then quickly adds, “(But) there’s an intuitive resistance to change and transition.”
Cubides brings a new artistic milieu to Durango, and while it may be cryptic to some, she has found a following. “Durango has been a super receptive audience,” she acknowledged. Her diminutive size allows her to squeeze her supple body into corners, meld into walls and hurl herself across a stage like a bouncing rubber ball.
The multi-lingual artist is interested in experimenting with different performance formats that apply to both conventional and alternative spaces. In addition, she continually explores ways to support her art through different mediums such as film, photography and writing. The video performance at the DAC for the Rabbit Hole exhibit is just one manifestation of that progression.
“My concern, focus and attention has been on understanding how I can share with the audience the value of what is inside a creative process and how I can make people recognize the human values, mechanisms and issues that are revealed in it,” she explained.
While her innovative method may appear planned, it is quite the opposite. “When I think about my work and my strategies for creation, I realize I am far from being practical or functional,” she admits. “There is something about immediate results that I don’t like, that I don’t trust, that I don’t enjoy so much. Arriving somewhere is not necessarily my goal.”
It is that very philosophy that makes her performances so distinctive. The audience goes along for the ride, not knowing where it is headed, how it will get there or even if there is a “there there” when they arrive. There is no real revelation or “ah ha” moment, it is more a Zen experience of living and acting in the moment. The process of how or where the performance goes is the creation.
For Cubides, crossing the border between dance and theatre is the exciting fine line between the two. “What are the differences and similarities between both art forms?” she asks. “Where does one art form start and the other one begin?”
It is a conundrum that has no finite answer and remains truly subjective for the viewer. Conversely, if a work of art is defined by its ability to provoke an emotional response – be it anger, serenity or introspection – then a performance by Cubides easily falls into the category. No matter what it is called, the dancer has created a medium worthy of an audience as long as viewers are willing to dispense with preconceived notions of what dance should be. A viewer must allow Cubides’ physical movement, energy and exploration to be the art.
Cubides was recently accepted into the teacher’s training program for the highly touted Axis Syllabus method, a precise system of movement analysis and education that incorporates anatomy, physics and biomechanics. She soon will be attending a training known as the “nomadic college” in Massachusetts, which will entail intense workshops and immersion into the method.
In the meantime, Durango is fortunate to have her.
As a sideline to performing, Cubides is available for private Spanish, German and French lessons and can be reached at adrianacubides@gmail.com