CÈL·LULA_LAB
A space and a time for transmission, integration and experimentation for choreographers, dancers and creators in the field of dance performance.
A space and a time for transmission, integration and experimentation for choreographers, dancers and creators in the field of dance performance.
CÈL·LULA_LAB is a programme of laboratories for research and the transmission of techniques and working methodologies. Their purpose is to encourage the flow of knowledge within the community. They also nurture new creation, create space for research processes, build community and promote collaborations and ways of sharing information and making creation a sustainable practice.
CÈL·LULA_LAB invites artists to hold practice sessions, share tools and methodologies, research processes and repertoires. It is a space for growth through shared experience with the professional community.
CÈL·LULA_LAB aims to provide dancers with the tools and languages of different choreographers/creators so they can explore the diversity of current creative proposals and practices, with the aim of acquiring more performative registers and techniques and gaining versatility.
CÈL·LULA_LAB is also a meeting place for artists to discover people, projects and possible collaborations.
Transmission of one of the essential short pieces in the work of Lucinda Childs, Calico Mingling, created in 1973 to be performed by four dancers. This lab was led by Ty Boomershine, Childs’ artistic assistant and Director of Dance On Ensemble.
The choreography was approached with a focus on the practice of dancing it, on the experience of executing it and on intimate knowledge of the piece’s structure and score. It was a lab for training and experience in the repertoire of post-modern dance. From 13 to 18 February 2023, the workshop brought together eight dancers with an interest in learning and performing post-modern dance pieces.
Within the framework of the Constellation Lucinda Childs, Mercat de les Flors programmed performances of the work achieved in the LAB on 18 February and 4 March 2023 (at Plaça Margarida Xirgu).
On 30 October 2022, Mercat de les Flors marked the last of the performances of Highlands (Mal Pelo) with a CÈL·LULA_LAB to give practical experience of the piece and the relationship between its music and dance. This offered a great opportunity to share thoughts, experiences and techniques from the piece Highlands, which was highly acclaimed by both audiences and critics. Along with Pep Ramis and María Muñoz, the event brought together the musical directors of the piece, Quiteria Muñoz and Joel Bardolet, as well as the dancers, singers and musicians that performed and took part in the process of creating the piece.
Together with the artists from the Dance and Music in Conversation series, Mercat de les Flors held a transmission LAB on 15 and 16 January 2022. The LAB explored the tools and methods of dialogue between dance and music used by the artistic duos (musician/composer and dancer/choreographer) that presented their creations in this series: Emma Villavecchia and Maurici Villavecchia (Rítmia), Manel Salas and Núria Andorrà (Miratge), and Sònia Sánchez and Agustí Fernández (Líquen).
The workshop brought together 15 professional performers from 10 to 12 January 2022 who were interested in the methodologies developed by Emma Villavecchia in her piece Rítmia (included in Mercat de les Flors’ 2021/22 season). During the workshop, Villavecchia was accompanied by Maria Soberón (assistant director and dancer in the piece) and Ursa Sekirnik (dancer in the piece). The musical excerpts that appear in the video are from Baiuca (opening) and Mauricio Villavecchia, ideologue and musical composer of Rítmia (final excerpt).
From 29 November to 1 December 2021, Mercat de les Flors organised a workshop led by Deborah Hay for professional choreographers, creators and performers interested in her work and career. This was one of the activities organised as part of the Mercat de les Flors Constellation dedicated to her work.
Performance of the output of the workshop led by dancer and choreographer Muriel Romero and composer and expert in musical technology Pablo Palacio (Instituto Stocos), together with researcher Daniel Bisig (18/09/2021 | Mercat de les Flors). Decoding Dance: A Contemporary Frame for Dance Digitalisation and Creation is a workshop focused on fusing artistic skills in the field of dance with those in the digital arts. The aim of this project is to attain a new level of sophisticated creative transfer in the intersection of these two disciplines. To do so, the workshop used tools to digitalise dance based on motion capture, machine learning and generative art.
The company Dançando com a Diferença (Madeira) visited Barcelona to present the piece Happy Island (24 and 25 April 2021), directed by La Ribot. The previous week, the performers themselves – people with and without mental and physical diverse abilities – together with the company’s director, Henrique Amoedo, gave a workshop to a group of 15 people, including creators who work on inclusive projects.
The aim of the workshop was to convey, through the evolution of the company’s repertoire, the profound changes that stage work brings about in the personal growth of all those involved – the personal transformation of the dancers and the transformation of their families, friends and, finally, their social setting. Self-esteem, autonomy and self-representation are the three pillars on which everything rests, according to Dançando com a Diferença.
This research LAB for the creation of the performance Made of Space brought the partnering tools of Guy Nader and Maria Campos to a group of 10 dancers selected in an audition in March 2020. A few months later, from 27 to 30 July, the LAB provided them with a space to meet new dancers and share their tools and language, so that this information could be properly integrated at the start of the creative process in Autumn 2020. Before starting work on any creation, Guy and Maria need to prepare the performers so that they can transmit their tools and allow their language to flow, with the aim of achieving the efficiency of movement that will enable them to successfully convey the physical hardness of their pieces.
From 15 to 19 April 2019, a LAB was held with Marina Mascarell, in which she shared with 10 local dancers the elements, tools and materials she works with, with the idea of incorporating new dancers from Barcelona into her team. The LAB gave young professional dancers the chance to learn and integrate the corporeality, interpretative skills and presence proposed by the artist. The outcome of the LAB was the co-production Orthopedica corporatio, which premièred at Mercat de les Flors in Autumn 2021.
The LAB with Pere Faura was held in December 2018. There were 25 participants, who presented their work at the end of the process in a performance open to the public in the Mercat de les Flors PB auditorium. This gave people the chance to get a first glimpse of the new creation Rèquiem nocturn, a new CÈL·LULA production that revolves around the figure of Bob Fosse as a person, film-maker and choreographer. Faura is a contemporary creator with a multidisciplinary approach in which dance is an essential element, presented in dialogue with music, film, performance and always impregnated with and inherent to pop culture, an essential aspect of his artistic discourse and poetic aesthetics. Based on this experience, Faura shaped the structure of the creative process for Rèquiem nocturn and in July 2019 held an audition with a three-day workshop, where 11 people were selected from among more than 160 participants. Despite the difficulties caused by the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, the performance was finally unveiled on 5 February 2021.
LAB WITH MARINA MASCARELL, ROSER LOPEZ ESPINOSA, PERE FAURA AND ALBERT QUESADA