LAISVIE OCHOA - GESTO [Residance 2024]

Residence duration: 2024-07-22 / 2024-08-04

Performance date: 2024-08-02 at 19:00

Laisvie Ochoa is a choreographer and dancer originally from Colombia, currently based in the Netherlands. In her work she breaks down barriers between what dance is and is not, finding new ways of communication, working with inclusion and using live video projections.

She is currently developing her artistic research on accessibility of dance also among the disabled. In an upcoming performance with the working title GESTO, she is working with deaf dancers to integrate deaf people amongst the audience as well.

Laisvie has been exploring the relationship between sign language and choreography for several years.
During her two-week residency at TELOCVIČŇA, she will deepen this area and use somatic methods to focus on the kinetic experience of signing. She is collaborating on the project with Dutch dancers Anneloes van Schuppen and Dennis Massar, with whom she founded the inclusive dance company ConCuerpos.

The project involves exploring innovative ways of linking sign language and choreography.
In collaboration with the dancers, gestures and signs are expanded by enhancing the kinetic elements of sign language, allowing a new level of abstraction to emerge.

In addition, we explore creative approaches to describing movement through voice and sound, enriching the overall sensory experience of the performance. In this way, we are developing a broader exploration of the aesthetics of access that enables us to create performances that can be enjoyed by people with and without sensory impairments.