Just an hour’s train ride from Vienna, we arrived in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. After Saturday, when we spent our time exploring the city and getting to know new spaces and people in the Bratislava culture scene, on Sunday, October 13th, we found ourselves at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, awaiting Daniel Abreu’s El Hijo, a highlight of the 2024 Bratislava in Movement Festival. The intimate studio space of the National Theatre, which accommodates more than a hundred people, proved to be the ideal venue for a personal and introspective performance like „El Hijo.“
Once the lights dimmed and lit again, the minimalism of the stage immediately became apparent. Abreu stood alone with two wooden blocks as instruments of expression, signaling that the performance would focus entirely on the raw physicality of the dancer and emotions. The lighting, which began subtly, soon took on a larger role; with its shifts in color and intensity, light itself became a key element of the performance, playing a delicate dance with presence and absence. The music, a blend of electronic sounds and piano melodies, heightened the emotional landscape. Repetition and gradual build-ups in the music underscored the progression of the narrative, moving in sync with the layered movements on stage.
Each chapter of the performance unfolded with its own distinct rhythm and visual aesthetic, with different costume changes, referencing traditional costumes but also with a note on contemporary times in its denim fabrications. The chapters went on, walking through different emotional states and evoking different memories and experiences. As it began, it ended in dimmed lights and almost pure silence. Arbeu’s piece resonated with us when we later discussed it; it brought up different interesting questions, regarding the balance between visual effects and the body performing on stage, music dynamics about space, and the ability of only one person/performer to keep the audience’s attention for around fifty minutes that felt more like ten minutes of specific poetic narrative. We are looking forward to more!
More information about the piece: www.bratislavavpohybe.sk/en/program/cia-daniel-abreu-spain-el-hijo/
Creation, lighting design, and interpretation: Daniel Abreu
Direction assistant: Janet Novás
Dramaturgy assistant: Marina Wainer
Music: collage
Accessories: Las practicables
Costume design: Leo Martínez and Daniel Abreu
Video projection and technical coordination: David Benito
Lighting design in collaboration with: Irene Cantero
Technicians: Jose Espigares, Cristina Prieto and Alfredo Diez
Photography: marcosGpunto
Management: Esmanagment – Elena Santonja
Supported by Comunidad de Madrid
Supported on tour: INAEM
Collaborators: Centro Coreográfico Canal, Escuela de Música and Danza de Pozuelo, Provisional Danza and Teatro Victoria
UPCOMING:
28. October 2024, 19:00: Sonoma by La Veronal (Spain). A mesmerizing dance by a group of women on the edge of dream and reality. More information and tickets
20 November 2024, 19:00: Para Cuatro Jinetes by Mucha Muchacha (Spain). An exhilarating journey through the enigmatic realms of Spanish folklore. More information and tickets
BRATISLAVA IN MOVEMENT International Contemporary Dance Festival
October 5–28, and November 20, 2024
Bratislava, Slovakia
Daniel Abreu, a renowned choreographer and performer, is a prominent figure in the Spanish dance scene. His evocative and artistically compelling solo, El hijo (Son), explores the special bonds with parents and places of the past, and the struggle to come to terms with them. Through dance, he conveys his experiences of the culture and environment around him, creating metaphor-rich imagery that narrates the story of existence within the broader context of life’s and nature’s cycles. His performance is both energetic and expressive. www.danielabreu.com
The international festival of contemporary dance called Bratislava in Movement, established in 1997, has been recognized in the greater European community and has developed into an event with several different activities. Bratislava in Movement besides presenting innovative contemporary dance productions initiates, commissions, and produces dance and multimedia projects as well as organizes practical workshops and theoretical conferences. BMA aims to present Slovak contemporary dance in Slovakia and abroad and mediate its contact with foreign countries, to create conditions for the evaluation of contemporary dance creation, to improve the level of information about the activities in the field of contemporary dance in Slovakia and abroad, to act as the co-producer and co-initiator of creation of new dance performances created for the festival or presented in the festival. www.bratislavavpohybe.sk
