From jazz to ballet and contemporary dance, Diniz Sanchez
has canvassed the floor, since he began in 1994, by fusing different
disciplines that range from dance to theatre, performance, improvisation, video
voice and more. But at the centre of his
work lies the passionate need to understand and feel the soul of dance. “For me
the person is very important and what they convey. What I want to see on stage is not only a
technically correct dance, but one that connects to the soul with feeling. Humanity is what makes art! I try to bring something that comes from
within that is not too academic. When I
dance, it is me, not an abstract body and that is what gives me the soul and
expressions from life,” reveals this Portuguese-born director, choreographer
and performer, whose early technical expertise has been shaped at Lisbon’s
Superior Dance School and Forum Danca.
Imbuing these concepts into his work, his repertoire as a
dancer-performer for different contemporary and independent companies in
Portugal, France, Belgium and India, has led to the development of a unique
style, one which he defers naming. “I
have not created a technique. But I have my own language of dance and am open
to the inclusion of other arts. With
contemporary dance, the vocabulary is so large that it encompasses a wide
variety of possibilities – a lot of schools of dance or typology,” he explains
of his contemporary dance theatre which was greatly influenced by the German
contemporary/expressionist dancer Pina Bausch. “For me dance-theatre is a very
open field. It offers one a lot of scope
to experiment working with dancers and actors,” avers this solo-artiste, who
earlier teamed up with varied artistes under his Franco-Portuguese company
‘Lua’.
Diniz’s quest for the ‘soul of dance’ is paired with the
need to use dance to question social-cultural concepts. The development of his
now famed ‘spicy tutu boy’ was one move in this direction. “This character was
intended to make people question gender; about what is masculine and feminine;
why can a man not wear a tutu or high heels; why are certain colours are
apportioned to male and female?. My
different dance forms raise questions about society, about our perspectives and
what we take for granted,” says Diniz.
Diniz is in Goa once again at the invitation of Fundacao
Oriente to conduct a workshop on the theme of ‘traditional/contemporary’ dance
at his contemporary dance theatre workshop. His ultimate aim is not to teach a
particular dance style, but to provide his students with the tools to discover
their own dance style and ways to express themselves, through dance.
An embodiment of ‘dancing with one’s soul’, Diniz will once
again woo audiences with his performance at Fundacao Oriente on August 8 at
5pm.
