Grief becomes dance: Sound light

From October 28 to 30

Tribute to the composer Mario Lavista in the Miguel Covarrubias Hall of the University Cultural Center

María Eugenia Sevilla&nbsp&nbsp

Claudia Lavista, dancer and choreographer, honors the life and transcendence of her father. Photo: Dance UNAM.

Claudia Lavista was in the midst of mourning the death of her father when she arrived in the Judean desert in Israel. It was March. Just four months after that break. From that trip came Offering, a work that takes as music the homonymous piece that Mario Lavista (1943-2021) composed for tenor recorder. A tribute with which the dancer and choreographer honors the life and transcendence of this fundamental composer in the Mexican tradition of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The videodance piece, directed by the filmmaker Alexander Dahm, has ancient locations as settings: the Tower of David, a wall erected in the days of Herod in the desert, and some rock formations among the dunes.

“In March of this year I won the Jerusalem International Fellows Award scholarship to work 10 weeks in that city and I decided to film this videodance. It is a reflection on mourning, on how I experienced it”, says the creator regarding this work. “Making this piece was a very healing process.”

Lasting just over nine minutes, Offering opens the montage sound lightcelebrating Mario Lavista, which will be presented at the Miguel Covarrubias Hall of the University Cultural Center on October 28, 29 and 30, after its premiere at the 50th International Cervantino Festival.

The show, which includes the participation of Aurelio Palomino in scenery, costumes and lighting, is part of the repertoire of the Contemporary Dance Production Center (Ceprodac) of INBAL, under the direction of the dancer and choreographer Cecilia Lugo.

the breath of the dead

The last thing souls hear in their transition to another life is the sound of the flute. That narrate diverse traditions around the world and times. And this is why -says Lavista- he chose works dedicated to that instrument to open and close the tribute to his father, who died on November 4, 2021.

“I liked the idea of ​​beginning and ending with the flute, imagining that my father is listening to it,” shares the choreographer, who, together with Víctor Manuel Ruiz, is co-director of the company Delfos Danza Contemporánea. “It was my father who told me that the sound of the flute guides the dead, that it is the only thing they can hear because it is the breath.”

Nocturne, for flute in G closes the tribute in which four works are also stitched together, from four string quartets, in the vision of four choreographers invited by Claudia Lavista.

“This homage is intended to honor my dad’s music and world view: he had an idea about interdiscipline, the creation of communities, of dialogues between arts and people. He wanted to do a collaborative project to emulate the way he worked and thought.”

Of the eight string quartets that Mario Lavista composed, each choreographer chose one. Thus, the idea of ​​Raúl Tamez marks the beginning of the series with the Quartet No. 4 Symphonies. The choreography by Víctor Manuel Ruiz continues, with whom the composer had a close relationship as musical adviser to Delfos. Ruiz chose the Quartet No. 3 Music for my neighbor. It is followed by the work of Melva Olivas, with the Quartet No. 2 Reflections of the night. Claudia’s work ends with the Quartet No. 8 Touch of silence.

Some insights from the composer will also be heard. “This show is a reflection on the cycles of life and death, light and darkness, beginnings and endings.”

The dancer notices the deep spirituality with which her father lived, and which can be heard in his works, especially those of a sacred or mystical nature; an aspect of her work that began after the death of her uncle, the great composer of the Cine de Oro era Raúl Lavista, and to whom he was very close.

“He was not a religious man, but he was spiritual. He said that he had no doubt that there was something else, non-tangible”, he recounts.

“This program has a symbolic reason. It has been an intense experience, an important project for me and for all of us who have participated. It is from a deep love that we have made this tribute to his music and his being; it’s amazing to have the opportunity to see it manifest through sound. He becomes a sound presence, hence the title: sound light.”

Grief becomes dance: Sound light – Gaceta UNAM