50 days Costa Rica with David Zambrano

25th January – 2nd April 2010

In 2010 Leila was chosen to take part in 50 days of Flying Low and Passing Through in Costa Rica with David Zambrano.

She was one of 34 International dance artists selected from all over the world to join local dancers from Costa Rica, Zambrano’s assistants and Zambrano himself to make a group of 50 strong dance artists to train for 50 days. The artists were specifically chosen because they demonstrate concurrent passions for making, teaching, and performing, three interests that are all active and vital parts of Zambrano’s own artistry.

At the end of the 50-day intensive, each student received a letter of certification by Zambrano approving them to use Flying Low and Passing Through however they like to develop it further as long as it’s a development from what Zambrano has already created.

Zambrano’s goal in the extended workshop is that a level of comprehension of and adeptness in the techniques is reached that allows the participants not just to teach Passing Through and Flying Low, but to be able to use, reform, and adapt the principles of the techniques towards their own interests and artistic directions, appropriating the work to a new generation of movers. The intensive culminated in two public performances of Passing Through at CENAC and the Teatro Nacional in San José, Costa Rica.

About the Techniques

Flying Low:

This technique focuses mainly on the dancers relationship with the floor/ground/earth.  The class utilizes simple movement patterns that involve breathing, speed and the release of energy throughout the body in order to activate the relationship between the center and the joints, moving in and out of the ground more efficiently by maintaining a centered state.

Passing Through:

The passing through takes students through various exercises to manifest Zambrano’s philosophy that movement needs no leader in creation.  The group will create dynamics that will be flexible, complex, getting the group to fit tight together, yet always keeping doors open for the unpredictable.  The group moves constantly, transforming the environment of the dance.  The students work to see the room full of pathways – infinite pathways passing through the walls, the floor, even the bodies.  These pathways go in any direction and are filled with curves, large and small.  Visible and invisible spirals are constantly passing through the students.  Thus the passing through is created into a spontaneous composition.  When the group becomes one mind, it can never get lost, there is never one person leading or following, every one is leading or following, depending on the situation. The whole group is constantly traveling, weaving their bodies inside and out of their classmates and still always aware of the environment around them.