Flor sits on the floor and, with very natural, begins to dialogue with the interpreters. She gives them instructions, consults them about some changes, asks them how they feel…
He is directing the last rehearsal before the next day’s performance, with the certainty that the result will be superior.
Flor is Florencia Werchowsky, writer, stage director and journalist. She was trained as classic ballerina at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Colón, then he moved on to another passion: writing.
In February of this year it premiered end of the world essay, a work that he wrote and directed, at Estudio Los Vidrios (Donado 2348, CABA). There he exposes the behind the scenes of the dance, the preparation, the effort, the mind of each dancer, invaded 100% by the dance.
In this staging, a group of ballet and contemporary dance dancers along with a lyrical singer coincide in a room. They are Luciana Barrirero, David Gómez, Aldana Jiménez, Valentín Fernández, Julieta Zabalza and Iván García. It is a representation of what happens to artists, who spend most of their lives rehearsing. More than a profession, it is a lifestyle.
-Curtaining the curtain, what is the life of a dancer really like?
-Studying dance is high-performance training, with great demands. Ballet has an inexorable specificity, things are only done in one way. So, in order for the body to master this technique and be able to generate the lines and movements, you have to train permanently, every day and many hours per day. First the body is trained and then, when a professional level is reached, the days are spent preparing the works.
-In other words, you never stop training.
-No never. It is inherent to the act of dancing. One of the starting points of this work (it is not the only one) is the amount of time that the male and female dancers spend in the rehearsal room. Because the scenario has a limited duration and is the culminating point or the realization of all that number of hours invested in training. Let’s say it is a very small part, it is what is shown, but under that tip, there is a huge iceberg of training, effort, tenacity, learning. That has a constancy that is expressed in that stage moment, which is a minuscule percentage of everything behind it. Ballet has two faces, like the moon, one very visible and the other completely invisible, because we work so that what is behind is not seen.
-What is the most complicated thing about being a dancer?
-Standing on your toes is as difficult as it is painful. For the feet to learn to make these movements and strengthen all these small muscles, it takes a lot of time and effort, but it is never seen on stage, because dancers do not show pain when they dance. In the case of ballets, they have a plot, a story to tell, and what happens at their feet is what sustains all that. It has to seem light, easy. They jump with superhuman abilities, they look like flying beings and that is very difficult. As a viewer you don’t find out, that’s why it’s so rich to show the other side.
-Is the diet demanding?
-I think that now there is more information and it is possible, for each individual, to understand what is best for their body. Some will follow a carbohydrate diet, others will not consume them, some will eat fruits and others will drink Coca Cola. I think it’s very personal.
-At what age does a dancer retire?
-Historically they retired at age 40, more or less, but today that period has been extended. I suppose it responds to the fact that there is much more data on the techniques and we know how to maintain a healthy body ready for the demands of the discipline. I think that makes everyone have a longer lifespan, because they get hurt less and, besides, the injuries are not as serious. On the other hand, I know that many male and female dancers do complementary exercises: they go to the gym, do pilates, gyrotonic. In general, the body is worked in a different way, much more consciously and with planning. How long can you dance? It depends on each person’s desire, because it is not just the body that forces you to retire, sometimes you no longer feel like getting up every day to do the same class that you have been doing since you were 9 years old.
-You stopped dancing when you were 17 years old.
-One of the reasons is because I wanted to write. Another is because my body was suffering, and my will was not up to the effort that ballet implies. I enjoyed it a lot, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to endure the physical pain. There was also a lot of demand, routine, there was something about going to a building every day that paralyzed me. I felt like it wasn’t for me. What I was really passionate about was listening to music or observing. I remember many moments of ecstasy watching dancers on stage, even when I was on stage! I really enjoyed the show, but not putting my body into it.
-When I stopped dancing and dedicated myself to writing, I discovered that writing is also with the body and it also hurts. The shoulders, waist, head, eyes, wrists, fingers hurt… and it also requires training, discipline and going to a place every day, even if it is the desk in your own home. I couldn’t escape.
Florencia hung up her sneakers as a teenager, but she never stopped going to see ballet, being moved by music. She was always in contact with that universe, because he never stopped finding it fascinating. And she knows that her path took her here. She could not have written about dancing without having danced nor could she make works about the intimacy of dance without having written.
-How is dancing related to writing?
-I believe that ballet trains willpower, it helps you overcome frustration, because the most normal thing is that, at the beginning, things don’t work out for you and you have to work a lot. And the same thing happens with writing, there is a difficulty in that process. I had the romantic idea that writing was sitting at a machine and spending all night writing pages and pages, which would flow naturally. Nothing could be further from that reality. As time went by, I understood that you learn to write by writing, just as you learn to dance by dancing. There’s not much more. Understanding this helped me deal with frustration.
-Returning to the play, why did you choose this cast for this particular idea?
-Because they are all artists that I admire. He needed performers with strong classical training; They were all trained at the Teatro Colón, there are two who are currently dancers at the Colón (David and Luciana), there are two others who belong to the Argentine ballet of La Plata (Valentín and Aldana), Iván is a lyrical singer (also at the Teatro Colón) and then there is Julieta, who does contemporary dance and jazz dance. To describe the intimacy and climate of the work, I needed everyone to have had similar experiences and to have the same language. At the same time, I needed them to have curiosity and a type of intelligence to jump into the void, because in this work they are naked, they have none of that which protects them on those large stages.
-The public is very close.
-I wanted the boys to have the desire and courage to submit to that nudity and the intelligence to give it intensity, because the audience is unusually close: when you see them, you can touch them if you want, you can smell them. I wanted to work on the rehearsal environment in a dramaturgical way and bring the intimacy of the work of dancing closer.
