TRES TRISTES 2.0

This project tests the methodology of repertoire recovery as a viable alternative for the contemporary dance sector in a context of a health and economic crisis, which has had a special impact on the Dance field. This crisis hinders the distribution of new creation projects due to the overlapping of distribution, delayed by rescheduling of previous seasons affected by the pandemic.

This project tests the methodology of repertoire recovery as a viable alternative for the contemporary dance sector in a context of a health and economic crisis, which has had a special impact on the Dance field. This crisis hinders the distribution of new creation projects due to the overlapping of distribution, delayed by rescheduling of previous seasons affected by the pandemic.

The idea behind this project is to recover, through "Dance Archaeology," a piece from the repertoire of one of the most recognized and important Cuban companies, Danza Teatro Retazos. "Tres Tristes Tres" is the original piece that inspires this new version. It was created within the framework of the Festival Habana Vieja Ciudad en Movimiento by choreographer Miguel Azcue, along with Kirenia Martínez, who was just starting her career as a performer in this company. Both the festival and the company meant, for many young artists, an opportunity to participate in a creative space born out of the need to communicate and engage with a broad and diverse audience, outside the established frameworks of 1980s and 90s Cuba.

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The desire and circumstances under which the current "TRES TRISTES 2.0" is created connect to some extent with the specific needs for which the original version was created. Creating a piece as a pretext for the reunion of a choreographer and a dancer after 20 years, a 2.0 version. The decision to maintain the style and aesthetics of the 90s allowed the new performers to explore freely and playfully when creating, without having to develop a new conceptual basis but with a disposition to spontaneous play, following impulses, images, and common dynamics from memory. This effort to recover a piece from 20 years ago based on group and collective memory served to launch a broad dialogue about the value of repertoire recovery.

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During the research process, ideas, shared interests, and individual viewpoints that carried the essence of the aesthetics and philosophy of the old company reappeared. The creative work of Isabel Bustos, the company's director for over 30 years, created a distinctive and recognizable style in many creators and choreographers who now pursue their own artistic work in different parts of the world. It was a school of learning and experimentation where poetry, magic, and visuality were intertwined with everyday physicality, close to the experience of the non-expert spectator.

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However, the project is not only about creating a new staging and an updated representation of an old contemporary dance piece, but it also aims to open up a reflection on this "movement archaeology" methodology to the audience due to its high cultural value. That's why we document the entire creative process alongside the production with the current tools and resources offered by the advancements in digital communication of the new post-pandemic 2020s. It will show conversations between people who haven't met for decades, methodological doubts, the effort and connections of long-term bodily memory, and how and if it's possible to access it. It brings to the forefront of the stage the rarely visible process prior to Dance and the complexity of a movement recovery process.

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"Tres Tristes 2.0" is a piece that works with the repertoire of the Cuban company Danza Teatro Retazos, extracting materials from old pieces such as "La casa de María," "Mujeres," "Rosas y Herencias," "Peces en las manos," and "Tres tristes tres." The reason for this recovery is to showcase a repertoire alchemy from our own tradition that has been far, almost forgotten by the dancers who premiered the pieces two decades ago.

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"Tres Tristes 2.0" is also a reflection on universal themes such as loneliness, encounters, belonging, absurdity, beauty, the grotesque, mystery, and poetry. Memories that opened a silent and textless agreement, and upon them, we wonder:

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What happens when we forget a choreography that was not documented in visual form? How can a dancer pick up the choreographic legacy of those who came before? How do we remember those old movements? What was the poetic mechanics of a lost movement? How can we recover lost movements?