Antonio Ruz, one of the leading figures in the contemporary dance scene, will premiere his new production ‘Norma’ on October 4 at the Gran Teatro de Córdoba, at 8:00 p.m.
The choreographer and dancer from Cordoba, winner of the 2018 National Dance Award, proposes a critical reflection on the concept of normality with a choreography in which unity becomes multiplicity, spoken and sung voices, a soundscape between the analog and the digital, an exhibitionist set design, a living dramaturgy, mutant costumes and an atmosphere between the dreamlike and the sublime.
Norma will recreate a stage ritual of five diverse bodies articulated around the opposition generated between the normative and the different, the everyday and the strange, the ordinary and the unexpected, the beautiful and the ugly. A plea for individuality, the exotic and the out of place. The party of the ‘rara avis’.
The production has the support of the IMAE Córdoba, the Teatro Central in Seville, the Tanzbiennale Heidelberg (Germany) and the Teatros del Canal in Madrid. This premiere in Córdoba takes place at the same time as Antonio Ruz promotes the creation of ‘La Normal Centro Coreográfico de Córdoba’, whose activity has just begun.
Photography by Juan Carlos Toledo
“Coming out was a necessary, but very painful, process in life”
A year ago, Ruz recovered a backpack that his mother had kept in Córdoba with that diary from his youth when he was barely 17 years old. When reading that notebook in which he poured out his reflections, desires and sorrows, he discovered a phrase that especially moved him: “I want to be normal.” It was the time when the acceptance of his sexual condition generated frustration, shame, isolation and guilt. “My coming out of the closet was, as in many cases, a necessary but very painful vital process,” explained the artist from Córdoba about the starting point of his new production. “Today we continue to assume that norms make up the foundations of our societies, but the normative also permeates a paradox: belonging or exclusion from its parameters. ‘Norma’ raises a critical reflection on these concepts. My intention is for each viewer to be like a camera that wanders from one body to another, questioning the mystery of beauty and order, the system, measurement, monotony and proportion, confronting them with the ugly, the disorder, the chaos, the excess, the deformed, the lack,” he added about the concept of the work.
Symbolic premiere in CÓRDOBA, his hometown, where he is promoting a new choreographic center
The premiere of ‘Norma’ in his city has an immense symbolic value on a professional and personal level. It also coincides with the birth of The Normal, The new choreographic centre is being promoted with the City Council of Córdoba. Its activity is now beginning with the first creative and research residencies in a provisional space and the final location, located in the former Teacher Training School, is expected to be ready by spring 2025. “With this project I wish to take a step further in my commitment to the city and to the entire dance community by promoting the arts of movement in, from and towards Córdoba. We aspire to make it a national and international reference point. We also seek to do work of social cohesion and mediation with citizens,” Ruz reflected on the matter.
The tour with Norma
‘Norma’ will then travel to the Teatro Central in Seville (January 31 and February 1), will be at the Tanzbiennale in Heidelberg on February 6 and will be presented at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid on May 8, 9 and 10. Antonio Ruz is also currently in Kassel (Germany), where he has been invited by the Tanzkassel company to conduct a new dance version of Mozart’s Requiem in collaboration with the choir, soloists and orchestra of its Staatstheater. It will premiere on November 2. “The piece is a tribute to my father, who passed away last year. A celebration of the life of those of us who are still here,” he concluded about this emotional tribute.
NORMA
When? 4 October
Where? Grand Theatre
Time? At 8pm.
Tickets? Here
This show has a green point discount
