Marcela Santander Corvalán

Rethought in a new version, DISPARUE (dehors) pursues its exploration of the crouching posture, originally adopted in the duet with Volmir Cordeiro, Époque (2015). As an evocation of ancient Japanese dance, just as much as an archetypal figure of Pre-Columbian culture, this centuries-old posture can now reveal all of its ambiguity and symbolic richness. Close to the ground, with bent legs, and contracted thighs, Marcela Santander Corvalán thus varies her bodily balance or the position of her pelvis, to show how much the curved body can be dominant, aggressive, seductive and protective, or in submission, humiliated, imploring and fragile. These tensions then suggest, in a second reading, anthropological antagonisms (seduction/violence, maternity/war, the sacred/profane) that transform the stage into an arena of combat, a ritual altar, or a porno dance-floor. By unfurling a succession of multiple metamorphoses, the performance can thus be interpreted as a vibrant archaeology of the flexed body.


Born in Chile, Marcela Santander Corvalán trained at the Milan dance-theatre, then at the contemporary dance centre CNDC, in Angers. She has also studied history at the University of Trento (Italy) and obtained a dance degree from the University Paris 8. Since 2011 she has danced for Dominique Brun, Faustin Linyekula or else Volmir Cordeiro, while also assisting Julie Nioche and Mickael Phelippeau with their choreography. She has been developing her own personal projects since 2014, including Époque (with Volmir Cordeiro) and MASH (with Annamaria Ajmone).