Lake Machine

Co-production: Mari Paula · Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria · CondeDuque · Dansa Metropolitana

“Mari Paula revisits, with many successes, the female archetypes of classics such as Swan Lake.” — EL PAÍS

Selected among the ten must-see shows of Dansa Metropolitana 2026 — El Periódico

Synopsis

In Lake Machine, Mari Paula reinvents with determination and sensitivity the classical universe to which women have been chained for centuries. Drawing on the tradition of ballet and theatre, the choreographer rescues three iconic figures: Odette and Odile, from Swan Lake, and Ophelia, from Hamlet, to free them from the roles of victims, madwomen or martyrs to which they were condemned by those who wrote their stories.

The piece is a contemporary and visceral response to the classist, white and patriarchal logic that has designed and shaped these works for more than 25 centuries. But Lake Machine does not only rewrite the fate of these characters; it is also a deeply autobiographical act, in which the director confronts the grief for her three stillborn daughters and turns that intimate experience into a liberating choreography.

Here, madness is neither punishment nor fate, love is not sacrifice, death is not drama, and gender is a fluid territory. The music of Tchaikovsky and José Venditti dialogues with the stage to open spaces where the female body and its many identities not only exist, but claim presence and recognition.

Lake Machine is a machine that beats with its own strength. It is vital moisture, that organic dimension that dismantles the machinery of structural power on stage and offers an emancipating vision that challenges performers and audience alike. A piece that turns classical tragedy into the light the choreographer could not reach in her personal life.

They say it has a happy ending.

A necessary and deeply contemporary research

After two years of research marked by three perinatal losses, Mari Paula revisits female characters from the classics to ask what it means to be a woman today, addressing experiences that contemporary feminist discourse has not yet managed to fully name.

Lake Machine turns a still taboo subject into stage material through the body and lived experience, opening up the classics from a contemporary perspective: women’s bodies, losses, desires and their contradictions.

The project is supported by national and international institutions such as Centro Coreográfico Canal, CondeDuque, Dansa Metropolitana, Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria, the Government of Cantabria, Culture Moves Europe, Goethe-Institut, Centro Huarte and Pasoa2, and has received media attention from El País, RTVE and RNE.

Artistic team

Idea, direction and choreography: Mari Paula
Performance: Araitz Lasa, Julia Kayser, Laura García Carrasco, Galina Rodríguez, Danielle Mesquita, Mari Paula and José Venditti
Cover: Rocío Barriga
Dramaturgy: Javier Cuevas
Music and sound design: José Venditti
Artistic mentoring: Poliana Lima
Assistant director: Lívia Delgado
Other perspectives: Carmen Larraz and Wody Santana
Lighting design and technical direction: Carlos Molina and Nuria Henríquez
Set design: Marta Orta
Costume design: Sandra Espinosa and Ana Muñoz de Terry
Photography: Áureo Gómez
Visual identity: Mutta Estudio
Video: Bandonthebend
Press: Adriana Lerena and Felisa Palacios
Community manager: Talita Zuppo
Artistic and executive production: Sit and See (Iñaki Díez and Raquel Jiménez) and Mari Paula
Tour production: Mari Paula and Adrián Torices
Distribution: Sit and See (Iñaki Díez and Raquel Jiménez) and Micaela Trigo

Co-production: Mari Paula · Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria · Dansa Metropolitana · CondeDuque
Supported by: Centro Coreográfico Canal · Government of Cantabria · Culture Moves Europe · Goethe-Institut · Centro Huarte · Pasoa2 · Las Vivas — Ibero-American Dance Platform