“Contemporary dance has made me feel more comfortable with my body”
The contemporary dance piece “Cicatriz” has been selected by the Buenos Aires International Festival. With the support of the General Secretariat for Emigration of the Xunta de Galicia, it will be performed twice, on the 19th and 20th of this month. The piece is inspired by the poetry collection of the same title, written by Vigo-born Antón Reixa: 500 verses, each of them beginning with “I want” (“Quero”), and it is directed by choreographer Kirenia Martínez Acosta. In addition to being the author of the adapted text and providing the voice-over for the project, Reixa also takes to the stage as a contemporary dance performer. He began practising this discipline for the piece at the age of 68, with a 65% physical disability as a result of a road accident.
“I recommend contemporary dance as a form of physical exercise to everyone. I am incapable of going to a gym, but I do rehearse every day. Through it, I have gained a greater awareness of my body. I had always associated it with acrobatic routines, but movement has more to do with gestures and with the emotions triggered by music and poetry.” The author admits that he had lived completely removed from this discipline, but after coming into contact with Kirenia —who had included two of his poems in her previous show and chose “Cicatriz” for a new production— he was in for a surprise. “I thought my collaboration would consist of going on stage to recite, but Kirenia suggested that I should be the one dancing while my voice-over was played, something unimaginable for someone who always struggled with physical education and was always excused from it at school because of asthma.”
The piece premiered in 2025 and has since been performed in different locations in Galicia, Huesca and Germany. It is already scheduled to be performed in Valencia in 2027. “With each performance, I gain more confidence on stage; it is a very intense and surprising process. For every rehearsal, Kirenia prepares different stretches, and since I started practising contemporary dance I feel more comfortable with my body,” says Reixa, who is also satisfied, from an artistic point of view, with the way audiences perceive the work. “It is an inclusive piece, against ageism,” he says.