71BODIES 1DANCE is a multidisciplinary trans art project – performance/ photography/ video.

An interdisciplinary and choreographic initiative by Daniel Mariblanca in which photography, film installation and dance performance are in dialogue to create an intersectional format that pertains to the reality and complexity of the wide spectrum of (trans)gender identities. The work is inspired by 71 personal experiences and testimonies from transgender individuals in Europe. This artistic project gives visibility, awake curiosity and generate knowledge about the transgender community – from a human level through an artistic work.

By exposing diverse ways of being, the project propose new references and ways of appreciating beauty and producing desire.

What is gender? What does it mean to be transgender?

What is the difference between a transgender person and a cisgender person?

What differences are there between gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexual orientation?

What does it mean to live in the closet? What does it mean to come out?

“When I began my transition from female to a trans man, I had the urgency to create a choreographic work where I could express my strong emotions as well as the changes that I began to experience within my body. It felt so liberating to come out and open my heart to all people that were surrounding me. I did it because I could not lie to myself anymore. I had a lot of doubts and fears about coming out; to be discriminated or refused by my family, my partner, or my friends. I had the fear that I could lose my job. I was questioning if coming out would affect my career. I was concerned about how my coming out would affect my future. I knew that I wasn’t the only one having these fears and pressures. Many other transgender people go through similar struggles. I realized that only talking from my individual perspective would give a very limited version of what it is to be a transgender person. That’s why I was inspired to base this work on 71 transgender people and was also the beginning of this company.”

Daniel Mariblanca

THE PERFORMANCE CONSIST OF 3 PARTS

Black Little Boxes

12 Black Little Boxes will meet the audience as they enter the venue. They will encounter several boxes highlighted by a small pin light, directing our gaze towards the boxes and inviting them to look inside. The audience will be participants of a moment in the narrative life of one of the protagonists. Showing these short pieces in this particular form is to gain an emotion of intimacy between the protagonist and the viewer.

This is the first contact with the protagonists and a close and intimate contact in which they begin to understand the deep human factor of the performance.

Dance performance

The dance performance lasts for 71 minutes and will embrace the 71 stories in one body. The physical work is based in the body, the qualities and the textures. The dance will reflect the same concept as the Black Little Boxes – the intimate meeting with personal experience, but now with the present body through dance. With an empty black stage and a naked body. No distractions or ornamentation just the body and its physicality. The naked body is an emotionally loaded space; at the same time holds vulnerability, strength, shame, pleasure, intimacy and empowerment. The naked body will give the possibility for the audience during the performance to challenge one’s own preconceptions and ideas of the naked body.

​Photo Exhibition

The photo exhibition will consist 71 portraits (1,20 x 1,40m) that will be exhibited on the stage or in a external room after the dance performance. The audience will be invited to experience the beautiful portraits with the personal stories. The posters are made by photographer Mar C Llop through interviews of all the protagonists.

Daniel Mariblanca, Concept, choreography and dance (Norway/Spain)
Camilla Svingen, Producer and tour manager (Norway)
Ursula Kaufmann, Video design (Spain)
Amanda Billberg, Dramaturgy (Sweden)
Jon Eirik Sira, Light design/ tour technician (Norway)
Mar C Llop, Photographer (Spain)
Gunnar Innvær, Composer (Norway)
Miriam Casal Madinabeitia, Composer (Spain)

We’re committed to making the our Encounters festival affordable for everyone. With that in mind we invite you to pay what you feel like paying on the day – so come to to everything that takes your fancy.