SoMos is a Branch
Dance performance spectacle bridging nature and the urban landscape, to be
presented in a parking lot in the North Philadelphia barrio on October 12,
2012, at 8pm as part of Taller Puertorriqueño’s performance series, Café Under
the Stars: Spotlighting the Arts in El Barrio. In contrast to the urban
landscape, the parking lot at 5th and Huntingdon Streets will be transformed
into a quiet carnival of nature images, sounds and movement invoking the four
seasons. This is a free event.
Interview with SoMos
choreographer Merián Soto by Josh McIlvain, July 29, 2012.
Photos: Lindsay Browning
Q: Why is the show named SoMoS?
Merián Soto:
Somos means we are. It is inclusive.
It brings us together as a community or as a whole. I want to create a work
that reminds us that we are nature.
SoMoS is also a palindrome, it contains its own reflection. How appropriate for
this work which reflects back to us our being-ness.
Q: Can you describe your jumping off point, and
the history of your work that has led up to this show?
Merián Soto: I’ve
been working with branches for seven years or so. Throughout this time I have
imagined ways of bringing the work to urban spaces and specifically the Puerto
Rican community of North Philadelphia. When Carmen Febo, director of Taller
Puertorriqueño, asked me to present work as part of their series, Café Under
the Stars, I accepted immediately. They are presenting work under a large tent
in the parking lot on Huntingdon Ave and 5th Street where they will be
constructing their new building. As I started thinking what I would present in
this context I imagined the tent as projection surface. I loved the vastness of
the parking lot, a place to work with giant branches. I imagined large
projections that would attract audiences from afar. I imagined a series of
water-globe like spaces where audiences could enter. Taller said yes to every
idea. They have been completely supportive of my vision.
Q: Can you describe the dance practice? At what
point do you know that a dancer has "got it"?
Merián Soto: The
basic task is to connect with the
branch through touch. The touch establishes a feedback circuit. You sense the
shape, weight, and flow of the branch and respond physically; the response
triggers a new awareness. It's all about awareness of shifting energies,
including images and feelings. You know a dancer has “got it” when they can
hook in quickly into a “zone”—they move seamlessly, the balance is impeccable,
they move through “impossible” places, their dance is poetic, evocative.
Q: What are the performance areas for the show?
How will the audience experience the show?
Merián Soto: The
audience is invited to engage with the work in their own way. They will be free
to move from space to space or linger. There are several tents representing the
seasons placed around a central space. One tent will be a playroom for the
audience.
Q: Can you talk about some of your
collaborators?
Merián Soto: This
is very much a collaborative project. I am working with an extraordinary group
of dancers who have been branch dancing with me for several years. Each is a
choreographer in her/his own right and is on top of her/his game. What a
pleasure to work with Olive Prince, Jumatatu Poe, Marion Ramírez, Beau Hancock,
and Jung Woong Kim! SoMoS is
providing an opportunity to expand branch dance choreography. There is new hot
duet work, work with balancing multiple branches at the same time, and much
more.
Other collaborators include the wonderful, sensitive, world
class designer Christine Darch who has collaborated with me on several projects
as well as Leigh Mumford who is designing the lights and directing production
aspects (a mammoth job), Cicada Dennis, sound design, and Lauren Mandilian,
projection artist. The creative process has been very fluid, with everyone
coming together to create a magical space.
Q: The show is very much a large public event
yet also a lot of the experience is very intimate. What is compelling for you
in creating that relationship? And what are some of the challenges of
maintaining that balance?
Merián Soto:
Nature is a vast, complex, interrelated whole. We each connect with it in our
own ways. I want to create a space for people to chill, to experience their
body’s imagination in relation to other bodies and beautiful nature imagery, a
place of reverie. I want us to remember that we are nature.
Perhaps most challenging is finding the structures that can
support freedom–for the artists/performers, and for the audience, and at the
same time allow for compelling art and a safe experience for everyone. I am
trying to create is a giant playground. There will be several performances
going on simultaneously. How will audiences respond?
Q: What’s been the most enjoyable aspect of
creating this show so far?
Merián Soto: It's
been an absolute pleasure playing with the materials, imagining and discovering
what is possible and collaborating with such extraordinary artists. Working in
the parking lot has been challenging but super interesting to meet the
neighbors and to observe them observing us. Like I mentioned before, it has
been great working with Taller. Often when you work with a presenter you get
used to people saying no to every request. Its been a breath of fresh air to
hear yes, yes, yes. I also want to mention that it's been very rewarding to
teach the practice to an extended cast of dancers.
SoMoS attempts to promote
a communal shift in consciousness. We
have designed the various environments to stimulate the senses and the
imagination. But its not an automatic
process. We have to enter the
experience; we have to slow down and take our time. In the
same way the dancer has to pause and sense into her body, the audience is
invited to pause, and gently observe their own sensory and imaginative
experience. 
