Atrás

- Choreographic solo work -

Aleksandar Georgiev  

Synopsis:

“If I were to do it, I would rather do it bareback... no protection, from the back, from behind, until it brings out the narratives from the back—the back archive, the back histories, the desires from the back, the back frontality, the back kinetics, the aesthetics from the back, until it dismantles the dogmas and constructs of shame, blame, and censorship, so we can smooth out, emancipate, and fall in love with the back, all over again”

This choreographic solo focuses on the back of the body from a decolonial and anti-capitalist perspective, both artistically and narratively. It is a choreographic work that begins by observing the body and its phenomenology from its "back side," exploring how it relates to this not-so-prominent body perspective. Within the Western European choreographic and dance context, historically, the back of the body, while being one of the fundamental parts of the corpus, has, however, been little explored and little exposed since, (apparently), it is not as expressive due to not containing identity marks such as a face. The back is usually left without prominence, drawing a parallel between this artistic and movement reality and the behind areas of our history and society.

Dominant thought and narratives also shape aesthetic and artistic languages. In this sense, "Atrás" highlights the rear perspective in contrast to the dominant front vision, where hegemonic narratives reside—such as those of reproductive logic and the perpetual forward-looking gaze. This work challenges the avoidance of looking back at the past and acknowledges what sustains or has sustained us.

Aleksandar's work in “Atrás” continues the themes from his previous projects, "The Power of S" and "Echoes of S," which explored “anal body and politics" and their potentiality. Now, he expands this exploration to the back of the body.

Choreographer and performer: Aleksandar Georgiev

Music and sound design: Tsvetan Momchilov

Light design: Pete Ayres

Graphic design: Asiria Álvarez

Image adaptation: Fernando Montiel

Production: Beatriz Bello

Thanks to Dario Barreto Damas for backing up the work

This work was realized with the support of LAV (Laboratorio de Artes Vivas y Ciudadanía), ICC (Imaginative Choreographic Center), Garage Collective, Cultural-Social Space Jadro, Konstnärsnämnden (Swedish Arts Grants Committee), Gobierno de Canarias (ICDC), Funds European Union Next Generation EU (Support for Cultural Accelerators), Cabildo de Tenerife, Teatro Victoria, Central Eletrican, Culture Moves Europe, Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and Toplocentrala.