Eva Recacha

2018 is coming

Aftermath Of A Very Accomplished Failure

In 2015 Eva initiated a research called Afterlife, with residencies at The Place, the Wellcome Reading Room, and the Manchester Metropolitan University. During this research she conceived the idea for Aftermath of a Very Accomplished Failure, a new full-length work commissioned by Sadler’s Wells that will premiere at the LBS in 2018 and tour throughout 2019. This work will build on Eva’s choreographic practice to date, delving deeper into her key concerns: political theatre, scepticism, the role of the performers as individuals, text as part of the choreographic fabric, the politics of performance in terms of who acts under who’s command, under what premises, and for who or for what?

Eleanor Sikorski working on text ideas during summer 2017

Performances of Aftermath Of A Very Accomplished Failure:

Touchwood 2017 at The Place

Scratch Performance

13th September 2017

Performers: Kwame Asajo-Adjei, Charlotte Mclean

2017

My work is an exploration of the poetics of the body, expressed through movement and voice; the two physical and perceivable occurrences produced by our body that generate meaning.

My choreographic enquiry has to do with creating form and meaning through likely and unlikely interactions of sound and movement, thought and action, sign and occurrence.

My current project is called The Afterlife: a very accomplished failure. Afterlife will be a cluster made of vivid yet minimal scenes, mostly quite absurd.

My language has always embraced the absurd, my subject matters the pointless, the ephemeral, and the perpetual.

Afterlife has been on R&D since 2015. A number of avenues have been explored, and more than a hundred people have been looked at or listened to. About a hundred chairs have been employed in different tasks on different locations and a dozen artists have kindly joined at different stages of the process.

So far the thanks extend to The Place, The Wellcome Reading Room, the Manchester Metropolitan University, Axis Centre, LCDS, and the artists; Lola Maury, Alberto Ruiz Soler, Eleanor Sikorski, Emilia Gasiorek, James Morgan, Antonio de la Fe, Hamish Macpherson, Janine Proost, Manuela Sarcone, Daniel Persson, Celina Liesegang, Giorgia Pirozzi, Jose Tomás Torres Vásquez, Despina Patsika, Marcell Proske, Elena Reilent.

Dancers in the video: Emilia Gasiorek, James Morgan, Janine Proost, Celina Liesegang.

2016 PROJECTS

My Other Life (previously Afterlife, Skydaddy and 50 chairs)

Research at the Wellcome Reading Room
Wellcome Trust, January-May 2016

Interviewing strangers at the Wellcome Reading Room I meet some really wonderful people. 'My Other Life' Research and Development period commences.
Posted by Eva Recacha on Friday, 22 January 2016

'moving furniture' @Wellcome Reading Room

Research and Performance with MMU students
Manchester Metropolitan University, February 2016
Axis Arts Centre, February 2016

The Wishing Well performances in 2016

29th May 2016, Arc for Dance Festival, Athens (Greece)

Wishing Well - Trailer from Martha Pasakopoulou on Vimeo.

23rd March 2016, Δημοτικό Θέατρο Καλαμαριάς (Tessaloniki, Greece)

11th February 2016, Axis Centre (Crewe, Manchester)

2015 PROJECTS

AFTERLIFE or SKYDADDY

Choreodrome Research Images

Initiator:
Eva Recacha

Work and Performance by:
Alberto Ruiz Soler
Eleanor Sikorski
Antonio de la Fe
Hamish MacPherson
Celina Liesegang
James Morgan
Manuela Sarcone
Emilia Gasiorek
Daniel Persson
Lola Maury
Janine Proost

R&D for AFTERLIFE starts in the studio this summer at Choreodrome at the Place with a wonderful team of artists.

Meanwhile, I am working from home, using Hamish MacPherson's research game METAFORM:

2014 PROJECTS

THE VERY HUMAN BEING (II)- CSC Bassano del Grappa

Residency at Centro Per la Scena Contemporanea Bassano del Grappa with Simon Ellis.

A human being as a commodity.
See him dance for you.
See him fulfil your desires.
He's at your disposal.
He's at your mercy.

Supported by Centro Per la Scena Contemporanea Bassano del Grappa, The Place, Modul Dance.

Previous R&D at the Place:

Eva Recacha project - some brief dancing from Simon Ellis on Vimeo.

EASY RIDER - The Place

Easy Rider - Trailer from Eva Recacha on Vimeo.

Easy Rider reflects upon faith, tradition and delusion. Eva Recacha looks at the human compulsion to engage with superstitious beliefs and practices in the pursuit of happiness. Creating a concoction of religion, customs and self-help manuals.

In Easy Rider, Eva draws on first-hand observations of ritualistic behaviour in her native Spain. Much like her Place Prize Finals 2013 piece, Easy Rider is a theatrical rite, an unraveling of the pure essence of our need to belong. It reflects our own beliefs and passions in a raw and haunting way.

Review: Conviction and Daring in Eva Recacha's Easy Rider

Visit: Easy Rider blog

This event is part of Spring Loaded 2014. Visit The Place website for more details and to book tickets.
‘Recacha is a talent to watch’ londondance.com

Credits:
Concept and Choreography: Eva Recacha
Sound Art: Alberto Ruiz Soler
Text: Eleanor Sikorski
Lighting: Jackie Shemesh
Design: Kasper Hansen
Performers: Antonio de la Fe, Lola Maury, Alberto Ruiz Soler, Eleanor Sikorski.
Production Manager: Marco Cifre
Costume Supervisor: Sophie Bellin Hansen

Easy Rider. Photo Camilla Greenwell

WILD CARD - Sadler's Wells Theatre

Choreographer and twice Place Prize finalist, Eva Recacha presents the second Wild Card evening on Thursday 27 March. She curates and presents an evening entitled Dear Devil exploring themes of authority, power, subjugation and rebellion. This programme aims to question our perception of how we relate to one another in different arenas, specifically opening a debate on how the dance world deals with hierarchy and the division of roles between dancers and choreographers. Originally from Spain, Recacha has established herself as an emerging artist with a distinctive voice. She has been commissioned to create work for Edge, DanceXchange, Bloomberg SPACE and the Opera Estate Festival in Veneto.

Recacha’s evening features work from emerging dance makers including the UK premiere of a new duet by Colin, Simon and I; a new film installation and live performance by the collective Dog Kennel Hill Project (Ben Ash, Henrietta Hale and Rachel Lopez de la Nieta) who recently presented Tug on a canal boat at Dance Umbrella 2013; and Recacha’s own 2013 Place Prize piece The Wishing Well, featuring the soloist Martha Passakopoulou.

Review: http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/wild-card-eva-recacha-dear-devil/

Eva Recacha. Photo Camilla Greenwell

Dog Kennel Hill Project. Photo Camilla Greenwell

Colin, Simon and I. Photo Camilla Greenwell

Eva Recacha/Dancer Martha Pasakopoulou. Photo Camilla Greenwell

2013 PROJECTS

THE WISHING WELL - Place Prize 2013

Winner of the Audience Prize 25.04.13
Winner of the Audience Prize 23.04.13
Winner of the Audience Prize 17.04.13

Place Prize Shows 17-27th April 2013 at The Place

Credits:
Concept & Choreography: Eva Recacha
Sound: Alberto Ruiz Soler
Text: Eva Recacha
Lighting and Production Management: Gareth Green
Dancer: Martha Pasakopoulou

Reviews: The Wishing Well at the Place Prize 2013 Finals

The Observer
"Eva Recacha's The Wishing Well is a solo for Martha Pasakopoulou, in which the dancer evokes the fleeting dreams, hopes and prayers of a child. Many of the movements are inchoate, dissolving almost as soon as grasped; there are repetitive tics, sternly and frowningly addressed, and sudden whims, expressed in breezily formless rushes of activity. What Recacha shows us, with precision and the lightest of touches, is that for a child, thought, word and action are one, indivisible."
28 April 2013 by Luke Jennings

The Stage
"A hot contender for the top vote must have been Eva Recacha’s Wishing Well, perhaps the most successful piece of the evening in terms of choreography, character, structure and clarity. Recacha has noticeably put the audience rather than her own intentions first, and has made a piece for them, which allows them into the work and takes them on a journey. The solo work performed by the captivating, open-faced and gorgeous Martha Pasakopoulou is sharp and well formed. She sings, plays jump rope, skips, hops and balances, traversing the space with a child-like guise, sweet, smiley and bouncy-light. We witness the transformation of her character through times tables to the tempestuous teen years, angrily pounding her fists in the air, forming strong opinion, and swaying sensually to the Macarena song. The process from a childish desire to make wishes to a more thorough understanding of the world, but still keeping the need to dream alive, is simple, enchanting, clear and well conceived."
19 April 2013 by Katie Colombus

METRO
"Place Prize 2013 final was best of contemporary dance"

"The standout performer of the night was Martha Pasakopoulou, dancing previous finalist Eva Recacha’s The Wishing Well."
19 April 2013 by Keith Watson

Telegraph
"Essentially a fragmented, lively musing on the language, nature and preoccupations of childhood – with more than a dash of Burrows and Fargion-style wordplay – it has an infectiously sunny spring in its step, and yet builds to a surprisingly bittersweet close. Plenty of promise there."
20 April 2013 by Mark Monahan

SPECIMEN 1 - Choreodrome 2013 at The Place

A video project with Hamish MacPherson. Work in progress.

Specimen 1 from Eva Recacha on Vimeo.

'Specimen 1' is a re-enactment of a political speech given by Hitler in 1934 during the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. It was included in the 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl.
Specimen 1 looks at the subject devoid of context in the act of celebrating and communicating power. This is the first of a planned series of short videos looking at political speeches by the artist.
Made at The Place
First showed at Wild Card, Sadler's Wells 27.03.14

THE VERY HUMAN BEING (I) - Choreodrome 2013 at The Place

A 2 week research in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Simon Ellis.

Eva Recacha project - some brief dancing from Simon Ellis on Vimeo.

Touch Wood performance at The Place on the 20th August at 7pm.

Eva Recacha Featured by ACE