By: Written by Coral López
We're celebrating the anniversary of Alicia Soto and the Hojarasca Danza company, which premiered "Human Landscapes" on September 30th at the Teatro Calderón in Valladolid. This work, a gift from Hojarasca for its 30th anniversary, encompasses every emotion, quality, vice, and flaw of humankind. For three decades, they have maintained a presence on stage with exceptional artistic and human quality within the contemporary world. Fragments of the soul are woven together by a common thread, a gigantic canvas lovingly chosen by their set and costume designer, Elisa Sanz, a master of fulfilling and sustaining dreams and realities. It's also worth noting that she works with Mónica Runde's 10 & 10 Company, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary on stage. This immense curtain has sometimes offered refuge and shelter, and at other times, it bears the scars of life, carrying with it feelings hidden or proclaimed to the world. Each scene reveals desire, hope, disappointment, and violence. Although Alicia and the dramaturgy team—Dina Figueiredo, Julio Martín Da Fonseca, and Alicia herself—have put great effort into treating the scenes poetically, it is sometimes difficult to watch the dancers without feeling disturbed and cringing during the violent scenes, which starkly expose the dark side of humanity. Life is portrayed as a journey, an allegory of the sails and fabrics, crossing the River Styx when Charon awaits us, or the sea when a better life or death awaits us. The inevitable death, sometimes in life, through loneliness, other times through despair. Libido, passion, pain, violence, harassment, love, sex… A cyclone of emotions and unspoken sorrow, a silent scream, and a constant reference to water, to rain, reminds us that we are water… and that we are immersed in a sea of emotions and feelings. We pursue the unattainable, where dancers support one another to achieve their desires. All this and much more is Human Landscapes. After the ovation and recognition of these magnificent dancers/performers, we spoke with Alicia Soto, director of the company and a pioneer in introducing technology into her projects, reflecting on its relationship with movement and dance on stage, and in educational activities for the dissemination of dance, both within and beyond our borders, committed to bringing dance to rural environments: Sasamón in Burgos (1994-1998) and Serrada in Valladolid (2005-2024).