Isa Leal, an experimental dance artist, is set to perform her solo performance-as-research pieces Experiments! Wednesday at the Trunk Space on Grand Avenue.
Leal said her performance piece is “focused on affecting social change by engaging the audience in creating story and empathizing in a way that helps them to realize the actuality of being connected.”
Leal, who is part of the Iron Rainbow Dance Theatre collective in Baltimore, explains her “unconscious” states of being in performances as “a movement meditation.”
“Authentic movement specifically comes from the Jungian Principle ‘active imagination,’” Leal said. “And has a lot to do with being able to see your ‘self’ through witnessing your creative output.”
The pieces that are to be incorporated throughout the night’s events are “The Door Piece,” “Toothbrush Piece” and “Witnessing Collaboration.”
The Trunk Space appears to be the appropriate performance gallery for Leal’s experimental dance by being both independent and intimate, with a maximum capacity of 49 people.
“I am invested in independent, local venues that by their nature support this work, à la DIY spaces,” Leal said. “Sometimes that means experimental music venues, or galleries, sometimes it means dance studios.”
Leal’s Experiment! “Door Piece” involves the use of a freestanding door, which inspires the audience to study the kinesthetic sculpture in order to experience and acknowledge the physical sensations, according to the Iron Rainbow blog site.
“Witnessing Collaboration” may incorporate audience involvement by having spectators make sound or explore movement together with Leal. “Toothbrush Piece” also encourages the audience to engage with their emotions.
Leal has been researching for approximately seven years and working on experimental dances, which are being compiled to make “Authentic Vehicle: Empathy in Performance and Personal Practice.”
Leal described it as “a book about the innately political nature of empathizing one another.”
“Because I am and have been invested in how to articulate abstract artistic concepts in ways that are applicable on a large scale, socially, spiritually and of course practically as an artist,” Leal said. “I am writing this myself, but have taken many workshops and worked with many brilliant and talented people that have informed my ideas.”
Set to perform alongside Leal will be members of dance group Dulce Dance Company, as well as sound artists Andrew is Tired and Tsone.
Members of Dulce Dance Company will perform “Crik,” a new performance for small spaces where a dancer plays the role of the “cat.”
Dulce Dance Company is eager to use the size of Trunk Space, as the performance is meant to get the audience “out of their comfort zone to be within performance proximity of the dancer,” said Dulce Jimenez of Dulce Dance Company.
“I haven’t had the pleasure of working with Dulce Dance yet,” Leal said. “However, I often have danced with bands and improvised musicians as part of the bill. This has been a wonderful opportunity to meet other artists in varying media who are invested in this kind of work.”
“I hope to encourage the audience to sense themselves and each other in the piece,” Leal said. “It’s more fun for everyone if they come with an open state of mind.”
Leal performs this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Trunk Space at 1506 Grand Ave. Tickets are $6 per person.
Contact the reporter at foliva@asu.edu
