Daniel Navarro Lorenzo choreographs new Global Dance Collective
An Edinburgh-based choreographer has used his lockdown experience to develop a new virtual work which is now securing global attention with dancers participating from San Francisco to Singapore and from Paris to the Philippines.
More than 90 dancers from 24 different countries have been participating in Daniel Navarro Lorenzo’s project STATE, which is set to be premiered online later this month.
Like most freelance performing artists, Barcelona born Daniel Navarro Lorenzo has seen his work completely dry up due to Covid-19 with residencies at both Dance Base in Edinburgh and Citymoves in Aberdeen postponed and a choreographic project cancelled with the renowned Dance Arts Faculty (DAF) by Spellbound Dance Company in Rome.
Instead of waiting for the coronavirus storm to pass, Daniel decided to take things into his own hands and over the past 10 weeks, with the help of a grant from Creative Scotland's Bridging Bursary Fund, has looked for ways to continue to develop his work online, drawing on his experience and contacts as a professional dancer and choreographer over the past 10 years.
Daniel says: “This whole thing started when I decided to teach some dance classes online via my website to help my neighbours in Edinburgh keep fit during lockdown. I started to promote the classes online and then dancers who I worked with in the past started to join and shared the link with their own networks.”
“Because of the interest I was getting, I decided to teach them some choreography that I was working on called STATE. Prior to lockdown I had been planning to progress the piece during residencies with Dance Base in Edinburgh and Citymoves in Aberdeen but they had to be postponed so I looked at how I could do that online. Over the past four weeks, I have delivered a series of live workshops to teach the dancers different choreographic phrases and now I’ve received more than 50 videos of them performing my work in their homes; their gardens and locations in their cities such as parks or beaches – there’s even one filmed in an underground car park and one in front of the Eiffel Tower.
“I was only expecting to receive five or six videos but the response has been amazing. There are videos from San Francisco, Toronto, Singapore, Hong Kong, Santa Rosa (Philippines), Sydney, Bangalore, London, Barcelona, Paris, Florence, Oslo, Bordeaux, Malta as well as from dancers here in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Aberdeen. It really has become a global dance collective.”
Daniel chose his work STATE as he felt it held a certain resonance with what people were experiencing during lockdown. The piece is set in a future world in which citizens believe they enjoy freedoms which they don’t actually possess. The dancers’ movements are robotic, mechanical – the only thing that releases them are memories of human emotion which they can discover through the traditional dance of previous generations. The work was developed during residencies in 2019 with Compaňia Nacional de Danza (Madrid) and the Work Room (Glasgow).
Knowing how disconnected and disengaged the artist community have been feeling during lockdown, Daniel encouraged the participants to comment and share their experiences as well as submitting their video.
Reneejo Euriel Lascano of Santa Rosa in the Philippines felt the work really resonated with her circumstances and what was happening in her country. She said: “I treated this work as an escape from my current reality. The “new normal” we are experiencing is taking a toll on my current mental state and wellbeing. Somehow too, doing this made me feel like I’m somehow at one with the rest of the Filipina artists currently being silenced for using their freedom of speech and creativity.”
Back in Scotland, Olivia Roach from Glasgow, felt the project allowed her to connect with like-minded artists. She said: “I wanted to be involved in the project because it’s a way of connecting with other people. We are isolated from each other physically but we can all move together.”
Daniel is now currently editing the video footage received to create a new contemporary dance video film, which he will premiere on his website and social media channels later this month. He hopes it will become part of the history of how dance, and the arts, has continued to thrive and stay connected during lockdown. He is also planning to use this experience and the network he has developed to create a virtual dance company, who he can work with on future projects together.
Daniel adds: “Contemporary dance and the performing arts have been so badly impacted by recent events and freelance artists like myself are really facing an uncertain future, especially as venues can not re-open yet for us to rehearse or perform in.
“We need to find new ways for how we can continue developing our work and stay connected with each other and with audiences. I’m really proud that I’ve been able to help with that and I am looking forward to seeing how our new global collective can continue to develop.”
In addition to choreographing STATE, Daniel continues to teach his online daily dance classes from his home in Edinburgh’s West End via his website www.danlourencodance.com.
You can also follow his work on Instagram @danbarcelona.
Ends
Notes to Editors:
Daniel Navarro Lorenzo is artistic director of Dan Lourenco Dance (www.danlourencodance.com) which he established in Edinburgh in 2018 when he relocated to Scotland alongside his Scottish husband. Daniel received support from the Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund and a bursary from Citymoves in Aberdeen to allow him to dedicate time during lockdown to develop this project.
Participating dancers who have submitted videos to be part of the project include: Claudia Crispino (Napoli, Italy), Jack Anderson (Glasgow, Scotland), Jackie Tamayo (Guadalajara, Mexico), Maria Palliani (Rome, Italy), Niels Claes (Klaipeda, Lithuania), Jane Llaha Olmeda (Florence, Italy), Sol Dugatkin (Santiago de Chile, Chile),Thania Acaron (Cardiff Wales), Christine He (Hong Kong), Svetlana Malinina (Moscow, Russia), Katie Taylor (Aberdeen, UK), Lakshmy Ramakrishnan (Bangalore, India), Oscar Rodriguez Soriano (Barcelona, Spain), Kai Wen Chang (Singapore), Kimberley Chia (Singapore), Joanne Yeo (Singapore), Angela Wilson (London, UK), Roberto Lazzari (Venice, Italy), Masha Ugrozova (London, UK), Aina Joaniquet (Barcelona, Catalonia), Francesca Fogliano (Naples, Italy), Farners Salmeron Mir (Barcelona, Catalonia), Laia Gomez Redondo (Barcelona, Spain), Jennifer Elise Steele (Glasgow, Scotland), Serena Micalizzi-Coyle (Edinburgh, Scotland), Nidhi Baadkar (Toronto, Canada), Martina Gastaldi (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Liza Malong (London, UK), Sherwin Santiago (Baglio City, Philippines), Tejaswini Loundo (Goa, India), Andrada Dragoescu (Edinburgh, Scotland), Hugo Mercier (Malta), Xenres Kirishima (Singapore), Grace Keeble (London, UK), Cheryl Goh (Singapore), Alvin Toh Quanyong (Sydney, Australia), Amruth Holla(Bangalore, India) Amulya Ravikumar (Bangalore, India), Miriam Hammersland (Oslo, Norway), Josefine Patzelt (Köln, Germany), Olivia Roach(Glasgow, Scotland), Mao Wei (Hong Kong), Ishai Karasenti (Tel Aviv, Israel), Gwynne Bilski (Glasgow, Scotland), Amber Dollin (Glasgow, Scotland), Cymone Woo (Singapore), Alyssandra Wu (San Francisco, USA), Anagha Kashyap (Bangalore, India), Anna Jirmanova (Šumperk, Czech Republic), Laura Marcou (Bordeaux, France), Ao Shu Qi (Singapore), Reneejo Euriel Lascano (Santa Rosa, Philippines), Xuedanyang Wang (Guiyang, China) Jeanne Morel (Paris, France) Further information on the video project STATE and to view some of the video clips and see comments from the international dancers about being part of this project, visit www.danlourencodance.com/video-project-state
About Daniel Navarro Lorenzo
Daniel is a professional dancer and choreographer with 10 years experience since graduating from the Institut del Teatre (professional Conservatoire of Dance), Barcelona in 2010. Daniel has danced with companies such as Frontier Danceland (Singapore), Y-space (Hong Kong); Polish Dance Theatre (Poland); Dantzas Konpania (Spain) among others.
He was worked with internationally renowned choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Itzik Galili, Shahar Binyamini, Lukas Timulak and Eric Gauthier. He is artistic director of Dan Lourenco Dance (Edinburgh) creating his own productions, externally collaborating with national and international companies, and delivering workshops and choreographing for artists and young companies across the globe.
For further information or to request hi-res images of Daniel, his work or his choreography STATE, please contact:
Daniel Navarro Lorenzo Tel: 07851 022413
Email: danlourencobcn@gmail.com
