ESTELA MERLOS
MOVEMENT ARTIST
Pleasure Island
(2024)
In the short stories ‘No se culpe a nadie’ (1956) by Julio Cortázar and ‘Las preocupaciones de un padre de familia’ (1919) by Franz Kafka we find a presence that terribly disturbs their characters. In Cortázar, it is the perception of his hand perceived in a threatening way. In Kafka, a vague and indefinite object, like «a flat, star-shaped spool of thread», worries its observer. It is not possible to define exactly what that object is, nor what it is used for, nor why it is kept in that house for no apparent reason…
A proposal that crosses the stage movement and music of Tejera and Stravinsky, respectively, to delve into the “strangely familiar”
Choreographers and performers: Ariadna Montfort and Estela Merlos,
Artistic director: Cristina Cubells
«No se culpe a nadie» (1956), Cortázar
Internités (2022), Januibe Tejera
«Odradek» (1919), Kafka.
Danses concertantes (1942), I. Stravinsky
Internités
(2021)
A word conceived as a mixture between interior (interne) and infinite (eternité), represents the present, internal and individual time of each one, at the same time as finite. The work proposes an exploration of the various forms of experience over time in dialogue with the movement of Ariadna Montfort and Estela Merlos. The moment, often subliminal, becomes the axis of continuity.
Work commissioned by Festival XENSEMS 2021 and Palau de les Arts (Valencia, Spain)
Music: Januibe Tejera
Music performed by: Orquestra de la Generalitat Valenciana
Direction: Ariadna Montfort
Choreography: Estela Merlos and Ariadna Montfort
Dance: Estela Merlos
A Riddle
(2020)
Supported by TORCH as part of the Humanities Cultural Programme. In collaboration with the English Faculty as part of the Professor of Poetry lecture series, Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) and DANSOX. This film was made during lockdown to accompany a postal poetry performance in celebration of the Advent Full Moon on 30 November 2020.
Full film available here
Concept and poetry: Alice Oswald
Music: Joseph Kay
Choreography and performance: Estela Merlos & Thomasin Gulgeç
Film & Photography: Rocio Chacon
Lighting: Satu Streatfield
Letter design: Kevin Mount
Blind spots
(2019)
A "something which causes" is substance,
A "nothing which does" is a void.
There is a name, there is a substance
- Then it occupies a place with other things.
There is no name, there is no substance
- Then it occupies the void between things.
What can be said, what can it be conceived,
Recedes from it farther the more you say.
~Chuang Tzu
Music: Joseph Kay
Choreography and performance: Estela Merlos & Thomasin Gulgeç
Film: Rocio Chacon
How many eyes do we see being two?
(2018)
Our way of looking, our look itself can unceasingly be born again if we consider the other as other, with respect for the mystery of the difference existing between us. Indeed it prevents us from reducing him, or her, to an object or to an image that we can appropriate, take as a part of our own world, of our own self. A gesture that paralyses the becoming of each subject and finally brings death to the two subjects, the looked at and the one looking, including the death of sight.'
~ Luce Irigaray
Choreographic score: Estela Merlos
Music composition: Joseph Kay
Music written for and performed by: Ensemble Klang
Dancers: Piedad Albarracin Seiquer and Liam Riddick
Filming: Sophie Sparkes
Lighting: Chris Burr
Nono
(2017)
Nono is an ongoing movement study of stillness, impulse and spontaneity.
The solo looks at the relationship one has with past, present and the imprints that remain.
Commissioned by Pavillion Dance South West, Bournemouth, UK. October 2017
Concept: Thomasin Gulgeç & Estela Merlos
Direction: Thomasin Gulgeç
Performance: Estela Merlos
¿Y ahora ádonde vamos?
(2016)
Choreography and performance: Miguel Altunaga and Estela Merlos.
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach
Premiered at Valencia Dancing Forward Inagural Gala 2017. Teatre de la Rambleta, Valencia, Spain
The Reservoir
(2016)
Inspired by Jean-Dominque Bauby’s book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, this duet explores transitional states of disembodiment and a sense of release through memory and imagination. The impulsive and rhythmic music, composed by solo cellist and producer Oliver Coates, is imbued with dreamlike patterns and submerged echoes.
Wilton's Strike Festival 2016 - Wilton's Music Hall, London, UK
Commissioned by Wilton's Music Hall
Bedum bedum
(2016)
"Please while make on allow for the at to occur destination via hard board side connections between minding once you have left no no no please enter within has been SCHWINDON!!!!"
bedum bedum is a dance piece on the theme of disorder.
Ignition Dance Festival 2016 - Rose Theatre Kingston, Kingston, UK
Commissioned by Dance West and Kingston University
Dance and Choreography: Thomasin Gulgec and Estela Merlos
Sound Design: Thomasin Gulgec
UKOK
(2015)
Inspired by the alliance of women with nature in nomadic culture, Ukok explores the intuition and vigilance of the feminine figure.
British Spanish Society Gala 2015 - The Place, London , UK
Commissioned by Graham Watts OBE, Fabiana Jaramillo and British Spanish Society.
Dance and Choreography: Estela Merlos
Music: Mecánica Popular
My Dust Will Tell
(2015)
My Dust Will Tell is a journey of courage, exploring the urge of escaping from what may be imposed on us.
"This process has allowed me to go beyond my boundaries, I have been able to relate real memories to every moment of the choreography which have evoked a natural symbiosis of movement and emotion from the beginning of the creation. Every day in the studio has been a new challenge, a new discovery of my own self"
~ Piedad Albarracín Séiquer
Choreography: Estela Merlos
Performance: Piedad Albarracín Séiquer
Music: R. Enrique González
Costume: Paula Tafalla
Entre Tú y Yo
(2013)
Every ego is continuously struggling for survival, trying to protect and enlarge itself. To uphold the "I" thought it needs the opposite thought of "the other".
~Eckhart Tolle
Entre Tú y Yo is a portrayal of dependency and confrontation within the illusory sense of self.
Rambert Evening of Choreogarphy 2013 - Lilian Baylis Theatre (Sadler's Wells), London, UK