Lake Machine

Synopsis

In Lake Machine, Mari Paula reinvents, with determination and sensitivity, the classical world 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, freeing 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, visceral response to the classist, white and patriarchal logic that has shaped and defined 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 of her three stillborn daughters and transforms that intimate experience into a liberating choreography.

Here, madness is neither punishment nor destiny, love is not sacrifice, death is not drama, and gender is fluid territory. The music of Tchaikovsky and José Venditti converses with the stage to open spaces where the female body and its multiple identities do not merely exist, but claim presence and recognition.

Lake Machine is a machine that beats with its own force. It is vital moisture, that organic dimension which dismantles the machinery of structural power on stage and offers an emancipatory vision that speaks to performers and audiences alike. A piece that transforms classical tragedy into the light the choreographer could not reach in her own life.

They say it has a happy ending.

Artistic Team

Concept, 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
Dramaturgical collaboration: Javier Cuevas
Music and sound design: José Venditti
Artistic mentorship: Poliana Lima
Assistant director: Lívia Delgado
Lighting design, direction and technical coordination: Carlos Molina and Nuria Henríquez
Set design: Marta Orta
Costume design: Sandra Espinosa
Textile art: Ana Muñoz de Terry
Photography: Áureo Gómez
Visual identity: Mutta Estudio
Premiere communications: Felisa Palacio
Community Manager: Talita Zuppo
Outside eyes: Carmen Larraz and Woody Santana
Video and teaser: Bandonthebend
Promotional teaser: Director Álvaro Manof, Director of Photography Ángel & Carlota, Music & Sound Design Tchaikovsky & José Venditti, Editing José Venditti, Colour Mucho Caviar
Sound production: Coro
Artistic and executive production: Sit and See (Iñaki Díez & Raquel Jiménez) and Mari Paula
Distribution: Sit and See (Iñaki Díez & Raquel Jiménez) & Micaela Trigo

Residencies 

Co-production: Mari Paula & Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria.
Support: Centro Coreográfico Canal, Culture Department of the Government of Cantabria, Carme Teatre, Culture Moves Europe — Goethe-Institut.
Acknowledgements: Las Vivas — Ibero-American Dance Platform.