Andrés Corchero is a leading contemporary dancer in Spain. His new solo, PADRE, is inspired by the realization that he himself has reached the age when his father died 30 years ago, all too early, leaving a generational gap impossible to fill. Corchero will perform with his daughter Rita Corchero, who, at age 14, is a talented vocalist. The work is based on an investigation of textual and choreographic materials that have ‘father’ as a reference and also explores the figure of the son and the grandfather. Corchero seeks transcendence of generational roles, whether constructed from absences or presences (as his father died as a young man without experiencing or modeling many stages of life).
This is Corchero’s 3rd time performing in Los Angeles. The evening will also include a new duet with Oguri, one of the foremost butoh dancers in the United States and a producer of this event. Corchero and Oguri met in Japan in 1986 and danced together in Min Tanaka’s Mai-Juku troupe. They reconnected in 2011 and began creating works together which they have performed in Spain, New York, Dublin and Los Angeles.
Artist’s Biographies
Dancer /Choreographer Andrés Corchero, resident of Catalonia (Spain), studied contemporary mime and clowning for theater and circus, and performed with Albert Vidal, Odin Teatret and Shushaku & Dormu Dance. A tireless explorer of body languages, he worked in Japan with Kazuo Ohno and Min Tanaka, dancing in company Mai-Juku (1986-1995). Corchero concurrently performed his own creations internationally.
In Barcelona, in 1991, he began a long artistic relationship with poet and translator Feliu Formosa, receiving the National Dance Award of Catalonia for "El bufó sota la tempesta” 2003. With Joan Saura, Agustí Fernández and Liba Villavecchia, Corchero formed the improvisation group IBA, organizing IMPROVISA Festival. He formed the prestigious Raravis dance company (1993-2012) with Rosa Muñoz.
In 2011, Andrés Corchero reunited with Japanese dancer Oguri. Their on-going project "My Neighbor Sky" was performed in Electric Lodge, Venice CA, the Creation Center l'Animal a l'esquena, the Mies Van der Rohe Pavilion (Grec Festival de Barcelona 2013), Joan Miró Foundation (Grec Festival de Barcelona 2018) and Teatro Principal, Palma.
He joined Morleigh Steinberg and Oguri’s ARCANE Collective in 2013 to create "Return to Absence", inspired by Samuel Beckett's trilogy. Presented at the Electric Lodge, it premiered at the Dublin Dance Festival, and was performed at NY Live Arts and the Grec Festival of Barcelona 2016.
2015, he danced "Sin respuestas" with musician Ivo Sans, MOCA Barcelona. 2019 he collaborated with the famous singer Silvia Pérez Cruz in “La Relativitat de la Bellesa” at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, Classics Festival. January 2020 he premiered "Absences (Padre and Camí de silenci)" for the Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona.
He has collaborated with dancers, Hisako Horikawa, Christine Quoiraud, Frank Van de Ven, Angels Margarit and Ana Eulate, María Muñoz and Pep Ramis (Malpelo); musicians Jordi Riera, Horacio Curti, Christoph Irmer, Miguel Poveda, Joan Ollé (director), visual artist Jordi Rocosa, among many others.
A native of Japan, Oguri is an internationally acclaimed dancer who has been described as a master at redirecting the way one sees and encounters the physical environment, his dance emphasizing the unpredictable. A resident of Southern California since 1990, Oguri produces full-evening solo and ensemble work, improvising and collaborating with musicians, sculptors, painters, poets, and literature. He is an artist-in-residence at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California where he conducts Body Weather Laboratory training workshop, a forum for investigating the body and dance. He has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, New England Foundation of the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, and Center for Cultural Innovation, The Metabolic Studio, The Japan Foundation, and 2018 United States Artist Doris Duke Fellow, among others.
Body Weather Laboratory is a research forum open to anyone interested in investigating expression through the body within different environments. A demanding attitude toward a thorough reexamination of the body and movement is a main theme in all the aspects of the training.
