Ana Sanchez-Colberg

Ana Sanchez-Colberg (born 16th October 1962), London-based Puerto Rican choreographer and dancer has gained an international reputation as a choreographer of dance-theatre, which is novel and distinct [Preston-Dunlop, Valerie. “The Word became Flesh: Theatre enCorps at The Place Theatre”, Dance Theatre Journal, Vol. 11 No. 4, Spring 1995,. 46-47. ] . Her contribution to the international dance scene has been recognised with the award of a Fellowship by the Swedish Research Council. It is the first time that such award has been made to a dance artist. [ [http://www.danshogskolan.se/dh/forskning_ku.html Forskning KU - Danshögskolan University College of Dance ] ]

Artistic career

Ana trained in classical ballet in her native Puerto Rico before turning to contemporary dance. Under the tutelage of Helmut Gottschild (assistant to Mary Wigman in Berlin until 1969) she trained in Wigman, Jooss and Tanztheater techniques. During this time Sanchez Colberg was a member of the Terry Beck Troupe, a Philadelphia based dance company and Movement Co-ordinator for Intuitions, a physical theatre company. In 1986, under the auspices of a fellowship from the Institute of Culture of Puerto Rico, she relocated to England to pursue further dance training. She completed a PhD degree at the Laban Centre London in 1992.

With Theatre enCorps [http://www.theatreencorps.blogspot.com] she has produced "Alice, Alice, Alice...Are You A Child or a Tee totter" (1989 1990) [Clemens, Mary "Theatre enCorps" Time Out. London: England, February 21-28, 1990, 70. and Cooper, Brian. “Alice" , The Stage and Television Today, London: England, 7th September 1989.] , performed as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as a site specific work at Newcastle Arts Centre and West Greenwich House and as part of Spring Loaded 1990. This was followed by "Fragments: Discourse on Love" (1991 92) performed at the Oval House Theatre. "Family Portraits " (1993 94) was also performed as part of Continental Shifts at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival [Bain, Alice, “A Contrasting and Triumphant Pas de Deux", Scotland on Sunday, Edinburgh, Scotland, 4th September 1993.] and was performed in London at The Place Theatre (Evolutions! 1993) and the Bonnie Bird Theatre. "En Viva Voz" (1995 96) was performed as part of Spring Loaded at The Place Theatre and was awarded the Bonnie Bird Award for Choreography that year [Preston-Dunlop, Valerie. “The Word became Flesh: Theatre enCorps at The Place Theatre”, Dance Theatre Journal, Vol. 11 No. 4, Spring 1995,. 46-47] . In April 1997 the company produced "Now we are no longer who we were then"... [Ostrowski, Ivana. “Now We Are No Longer Who We Were Then..." Total Theatre.London, Vol. 9, No. 2, Summer 1997] based on Jean Cocteau’s "Jeune Homme et la Mort" . She directed, choreographed and produced "Futur/Perfekt" [Cooper, Helen "Futur/Perfekt: London Calling" Dance Expressions, London: England, January 2000, page 40] an international collaborative performance project exploring the relationship between individual histories, city landscapes and the notion of the global. The project began in Berlin [Draeger, Volkmar “Alle Kapseln reisen mit..." Berliner Morgenpost, Berlin: Germany, 18th September 1998.] in 1998 and was performed in the USA, Austria, Puerto Rico, Colombia and México. In 2003 she created "Inside Heiner’s Mind" a one woman solo that has toured internationally. In 2004 with support from the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Theatre Museum Vienna she produced "Mahler’s Fifths". The piece was the recipient of the Creative Collaborations in Music Award from PRS for its innovative treatment of dance and ‘live music’ in performance. The piece toured internationally in 2005. "Killing Charity" in collaboration with director Niall Rea was premiered as part of Fronteras Latin American festival at the Robin Howard Dance Theatre in October 2004. She has performed in "Holds no memory", and Arts Council of England supported collaboration with Swedish choreographer Efva Lilja [Phillips, Katie. “Theatre enCorps and Efva Lilja”, Dancing Times, June 2007] . "We: Implicated and Complicated" [Westman, Nancy. Dansens Nya Horisonter Utforskas, Danstidningen, No, 3, June, Stockholm, 2007, p. 12-14] has been produced with Arts Council of England support and has been performed in London, Stockholm and Vienna.

Sánchez Colberg has worked with many international companies. She has produced four commissioned pieces for Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico: "Ojos Que No Ven" (1992) which received the first prize in the Festival of Caribbean Choreographers and has been subsequently performed as part of Ballet Concierto’s performances in New York’s Lincoln Centre and the Wuppertal Opera House [Gonzalez, Max “Ballet Concierto's Ojos A Perfectly Designed Work", San Juan Star, San Juan: Puerto Rico, October 1992] , "Sartorii" (1994) [Alegre-Barrios, Mario. Metaforica Ana Sánchez-Colberg, El Nuevo Día, San Juan Puerto Rico, 23rd December, 1994, 85.] , "Entre Huella y Pisada" (1996) received various awards from the Corporation for Music and Scenic Arts (NEA) [Alegre-Barrios, Mario “Un Retorno: Entre Huella y Pisada", El Nuevo Dia. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 28th September 1996, 99. and Homar, Susan “Ballet Concierto Festival Enlivens Choreographers" San Juan Star. San Juan: Puerto Rico, 9th September 1996, 59-61.] and "Tejiendo Memorias" (1998). She produced a piece for the Balletts des Staatstheater Cottbus "es lasst sich nicht lesen.." with support from the British Council (Berlin) [Beier, Gabi "Vorspiel" , Hermann, Cottbus: Germany, May 1997.] . Strange "Muse", produced in June 1997 was commissioned by the Institute of Culture of Puerto Rico in collaboration with musicians from the Puerto Rico Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1997 she premiered a work for Foreign Bodies Dance Company developed with support from East Midlands Arts. She has also choreographed "Recollections" (1999) for Andanza (Puerto Rico).

Artistic Research and Pedagogy

Sanchez-Colberg also has a long career as a dance scholar and teacher. She has worked at some of the most prominent centers for dance and theatre training including the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, the Central School of Speech and Drama, Helsinki Theatre Academy, and most recently the University College Dance in Stockholm where she has held the position of Visiting Professor of Choreography since 2005. She is critically acknowledged to have written the seminal essay on dance theatre and physical theatre [ Sánchez-Colberg, Ana. “Altered States And Subliminal Places: Charting The Road Towards A Physical Theatre”. Performance Research, 1( 2). 1996.] . First published in journal Performance Research under the title “Altered States and Subliminal Spaces”, the essay is now included in the reader "Physical Theatres", edited by John Keefe and Simon Murray alongside the works of key theater practitioners including Augusto Boal, Stephen Berkhoff, Etienne Decroux and Bertol Brecht [Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader, John Keefe and Simon Murray eds. Routledge, 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-36252-8] . Her artistic research focuses on developing the notion of practice-based-research with attention to choreographic and performance practices. . Her work proposes new relationships between concepts and practice as it pertains to contemporary dance-theatre practice [Sanchez-Colberg, Ana. „Making the Invisible Visible“, Close Encounters: Artists on Artistic Research, Danshigskolan, Stockholm, 2008. ISSN 1652-3776] . In “Making the Invisible Visible” she suggests that the aim is to find a method pf practice that can capture "the minutia, the fleeting, the subtle, by slowing down the process to find the steps within the steps and as such allow the intelligence of the body to come through and thus ’make explicit’ the intelligence of the body”. For Sanchez-Colberg this “ occurs at two mutually influential levels. On the one hand there is the continuous exploration and experimentation with the materials of the medium –whatever we define them to be- as well as the development of shareable artistic skills and methods. On the other, one finds the generation of artistic discourse through which we as artists, educators and industry providers are able to exchange knowledge in and through our various practices”. The essay “ Holds No Memory: A proposition as a way to a proposal on Dance” which discusses the process into the making and performance of the piece of the same title, has been published in "Dance in A World of Change" (2008).

References