Bird Dog

  • Performing arts
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Wed, October 20, 2021
  • 6:30 pm — 8:30 pm
Bird Dog

Born during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bird Dog is a contemporary dance performance created by Marina Mascarell that will be live-streamed from Tokyo, Lisbon, The Hague, and Washington, D.C.

Bird Dog

  • Directed by Marina Mascarell.
  • Dramaturgy by Riikka Laakso, music by Miguelángel Clerc Parada, and video design by Francesc Isern.
  • Dancers: Yasutake Shimaji performing from Tokyo, Nina Botkay performing from Lisbon, Spencer Dickhaus performing from The Hague and Shanice Mason performing from Washington, D.C.

Bird Dog arose as a commission from the Spanish Embassy in Tokyo, joined later on by the embassies of Paris, Washington, D.C. and Lisbon. From these four collaborating points, the concept of the work was born, taking into account the current situation with the pandemic and the need to minimize traveling.

Bird Dog is a (dance) road movie, a trip that alters the perspective of the participant’s daily life, driving them to question their cultural identity. The journey happens live. It is not prerecorded, an ephemeral act taking place in the streets of Tokyo, Lisbon, Washington, DC and The Hague – a site-specific piece. Four performers are connected through their devices sharing a physical and sensorial experience to produce internal alterations: the body moving the spirit. It is a celebration of a passage, a remote ritual to transform their perception of the public space and engender a community of resonance, capable of experiencing harmony and common rhythm.

Bird Dog wants to break with the binarism “body-technology” by redefining our relation with the screen – mostly used as a communicating tool to see/show and enhance the ego. The use of electronic devices to share body turning the city into a sensory field full of textures, volumes, density, different surfaces, weight, colours, temperature of matter, smells, sounds, time …, a medium to reactivate the impersonal during a sensorial encounter questioning the growing hegemony of the eye. Not blaming the machine for the growing separation between the self and the world in our constant bulimic viewing immersion, but finding ways of awakening our community bond by embodying a collective consciousness through a remote ritual.

About the choreographer

Marina Mascarell is a choreographer based in The Netherlands and Associated Artist at Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona and Korzo Theatre in The Hague. In her art, the reflexions, inquiries and concepts turn into a poetic fight, where thought transforms into corporeality and movement. Mascarell is interested in a rebellious body characterized by questioning “normativity,” in the dancing body as a form of resistance, deeply rooted in a political and social action.

Beside her independent work, she has also been commissioned to create pieces by different institutions such as GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Biennale de la Danse of Lyon with Lyon Opera Ballet, Skanes Dansteater, Dance Forum Taipei, Nederlands Dans Theater, Barcelona Grec Festival among others.

She collaborates as well with fellow artists in the fields of visual arts, film, music and theatre. Alongside her work as a choreographer, Mascarell has developed a practice which is strongly linked to her choreographic process. A method focused on movement research and the increase of body awareness. She teaches workshops at different festivals, institutions or schools. Mascarell is a former dancer of Nederlands Dans Theater and Cedar Lake New York.

Venue

Venue map

Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain, 2801 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20009

Admission

Credits

Produced by: The Spanish Agency of International Cooperation with the Embassies of Spain in Washington, Tokyo, Paris and Lisbon / Co produced by: Mercat de les Flors / Distributed by: Agente 129 & Elclimamola

Tools

Newsletter

Don't miss events like this one! Subscribe to our bimonthly newsletter to stay informed. Our subscribers also get exclusive access to select online content such as free screenings or concerts.

Sign up for our newsletter