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Towards

Imagen Towards

TOWARDS is a documentary series created by La Macana. Each chapter features a conversation between a prominent member of the dance community alongside the directors of the dance company La Macana.

 

The first episode highlights the German dancer and choreographer, Susanne Linke. It was recorded in her apartment in Berlin in January 2023.

 

The second episode features a conversation with the Cuban dancer Joel Suárez in an isolated Berlin parking lot, also in the German capital, during the same period as Susanne’s interview.


For the final episode, we traveled to Bremen to meet Alexandra Morales, the Artistic Co-director of the dance department at Theater Bremen.

 

Three perspectives on the field of dance to help us to keep going.

Chapter I | Susanne Linke

The first episode is with the renowned German choreographer Susanne Linke. We had the pleasure to work with her at the reconstruction of Ruhr-Ort (Pottporus/Renegade, 2014) of the original from 1991. Afterwards, with Julio César Iglesias, we were guest choreographers at Theater Trier Tanz while she was the company’s artistic director. 


At the beginning of 2023 we met at her apartment in Berlin. Her welcoming energy and her generosity on sharing previous experiences and path, did really inspire us. We had a great and nurturing conversation sharing time and space with Susanne. You can get an idea of how the conversation went in the first episode of our documentary series. 


Since we met Susanne back in 2014 and until we gathered to record Towards in 2023, we have always looked up to her as an inspiration on how to keep going on dance. 

Direction: Caterina Varela &Alexis Fernández

Camera: Joseph Devitt Tremblay & Álvaro S. Rodríguez

Post-production: Joseph Devitt Tremblay

Music: J. Lawton

Translation: Nice Try

Production: Caterina Varela

Production assistant: Sabela Ramos

Thanks: Susanne Linke, Urs Dietrich, Zekai Fenerci, Martina Plura, Joel Suárez 

Chapter II | Joel Suárez​

For the second episode of Towards we invited the Cuban-German dancer Joel Suarez to meet us at a parking spot in Berlin. 


Alexis and Joel met in Havana about 20 years ago. Even though they come from different generations, somehow their careers and personal lives have taken very similar paths as both of them left Cuba and ended up successfully developing a career in dance in Europe. They have worked together several times with Stephanie Thiersch or Julio César Iglesias Ungo and they have become really good friends over the time. 


Our gathering in Berlin was fast and intense at the same time, but we loved having the opportunity to share this conversation with him and specially, to dance together one more time.

Direction: Caterina Varela & Alexis Fernández

Camera: Joseph Devitt Tremblay & Álvaro S. Rodríguez

Post-production: Álvaro S. Rodríguez

Music: J. Lawton

Translation: Nice Try

Production: Caterina Varela

Production assistant: Sabela Ramos

Thanks: Joel Suárez

Chapter III | Alexandra Morales

On the third episode of Towards we felt the urge to invite our dear friend and Co-Director of the dance department at Theatre Bremen, Alexandra Morales, who, as Caterina, comes from a dance background with a multiperspective: dancer, choreographer, producer, curator…

 

We met Alexandra and the whole Unusual Symptoms team in 2009 when they were artists in residence in Theater im Pumpenhaus. From that moment to now, we have collaborated many times, presenting our dance piece VEN at Raw Like Sushi Festival in Münster, taking part of Samir’s piece E.T.E. in Zürich, having a collaboration for our dance piece Drown the Road and, recently, for our show Pink Unicorns co-created with Samir Akika and co-produced by Theater Bremen. It has been a long and beautiful relationship from the beginning.  

 

For us, it was important to also portrait the lights and shadows involved in everything that has to do with developing a dance project from a producer perspective. We wanted to highlight the idea that a dance professional can embrace different roles and gather valuable expertise and know-how over the years. 

Direction: Caterina Varela & Alexis Fernández

Camera: Lio Klose

Post-production: Julia Carretero Araujo

Translation: Nice Try

Production: Caterina Varela

Production assistant: Sabela Ramos

Thanks: Alexandra Morales, Mali Gabrielli, Nuno Varela, Theater Bremen

This project was supported by