An Experience of Transmission: BACH, by María Muñoz and Federica Porello

The Museo Reina Sofía brings International Dance Day forward to Saturday 28 April with a double programme showcasing the work of choreographers Sofía Asencio (Societat Doctor Alonso) and María Muñoz (Mal Pelo), accompanied by Tirso Orive and Federica Porello, respectively.

Both proposals, despite differing in points of departure and focal points, come together over a specific concern with the relationship between the languages of dance and music. Both are presented as "situations of investigation" around the body, which, in the choreography of Sofíia Asencio and Tirso Orive, draws from popular tradition and the idea of travelling dance. A Transmission Experience: BACH, explores the possibility that the transfer of a performance does not necessarily mean copying and repeating.

“Dance, like language, helps to order our thoughts by moving through the entire body, giving us a view of life and becoming our communication tool on stage. Transmitting is to establish a relationship of exchange between people"

María Muñoz

In BACH (2004), María Muñoz (Mal Pelo) uses a selection of preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the 18th century and performed here on piano by Glenn Gould to combine movement and dance. One of the widely known dance solos from the piece took on a new dimension when, in 2016, Mal Pelo invited Italian dancer Federica Porello to perform it. “Through the generosity and delicate transmission of the BACH piece and the outstanding and masterly performance by Federica Porello, who gives it a huge choreographic richness,” Mal Pelo was awarded the Barcelona Dance Award in 2017.

This fragment of the solo, performed by Porello, is presented under the title An Experience of Transmission: BACH, and is followed by a conversation with María Muñoz, who will discuss some of the aspects considered in the process of transmission, initiated two years previously, and what it means for a contemporary company to generate a legacy which survives in others, adopting its constant transformations. To conclude, and in homage to artist Nuria Font (1958–2017), a regular contributor to Mal Pelo and audiovisual producer of the original work BACH, images related to the dance solo will be projected. 

The full version of BACH (2004) by Mal Pelo, performed by María Muñoz, will be presented in the autumn program 2018 of Teatros del Canal (Madrid). The fragment presented in the Museo Reina Sofia works as an advance and study of it.

Participants

María Muñoz founded the group Mal Pelo in 1989 with Pep Ramis. More than a company, Mal Pelo is a hub with which composers, visual artists and other creators with an interest in working around the body collaborate. Since then, Muñoz has developed her own artistic language, incorporating theatrical dance and the use of words. In 1997 Mal Pelo started to restore and construct the spaces of Mas Espolla, a rural area in Gerona, opening, in 2001, the creation centre L’animal a l’esquena (directed with Toni Cots until 2010), which today continues to be place for meeting, exchange and residencies to produce art projects.

Federica Porello graduated from P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels) in 2006. She has worked with Albert Quesada on the piece Solo on Bach and Glenn (2009), with Frank Verkruyssen on The Tangible (2010) and on Promenade avec Monseigneur du Réel (2010), with Merlin Borg. Her work most notably includes Teaching Set and Reset/Reset (2010), a documentary on the learning process for Set and Reset, created by Trisha Brown in 1983.