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Mexico City, 10/04/2017

Iceland Academy of the ArtsPerforming Arts Department

Dear Sirs and Madams:

I am drawn to this program because making art is not only a way of life, but also my spontaneous and continuous way of existing. Art fulfills me. I want to collaborate, travel, and experience different ways of discovering the world through my artistic practice, as I have done throughout the years. I am eager to keep working with diffe-rent, vibrant communities and create audiences, as well as learning different methods from different performers and artists from all disciplines. My main goal is to participate in festivals and cultural events where I can expose and share my percep-tion of the world through art.

Living and studying abroad will definitely be a great achievement. It would give me opportunities that my current socio-political context does not provide. Workshops, clinics, and different ways of educating through dance and performance are definite-ly my priorities as a professional.

I want to engage a wider artistic scene, while enriching my artistic practice. Additio-nally, I would like to create the economic conditions that will allow me to devote myself entirely to artistic creation. I need to keep training myself to improve the con-ditions of culture and the arts in Mexico. I will use performance to transform and raise awareness using all the stages and the places I can reach through the power of art.

As a dancer, I know that passion is critical, but is never enough. With that in mind, I am committed to continue my education and expand my artistic repertoire. In Mexico there are no institutions that support and provide technical skills for performance artists, and there are very few spaces that actually showcase the disciplines of dance and performance. I intend to change these conditions for the better.   

I consider myself a struggling dancer in urge to continue developing my creativity, one who seeks to break and outdo limitations. I am particularly interested in the work of Professor Philipe Quesane, for his theatrical innovations and his political and social messages. My work has always been focused on social issues, and harmonizes with the ethical imperative of the program.I hope I have conveyed the extent of my qualifications as a candidate for this pro-gram, and I would be very pleased to form a part of the Iceland Academy of the Arts community.

Sincerely,Dilery Alejandra Sanchez Ortiz

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Project: Coctail

I am fascinated by the human condition. I’m intrigued by the shaping of a human being: scientist say we are made of atoms, but I think we are made of stories. In Mexico we see reality exceeding fiction every day—that’s why I am interested in the research of contemporary social events to expand them on stage to talk about ourselves, Mexicans and Icelanders.In this project I propose to create a character based on the human events to occur on both Iceland and Mexico during my Reykjavík residence. This way, I propose a piece in which information about both cultures will be mixed in the same charac-ter to a specular effect.The process will include an investigation, compilation, and analysis of news sites and newspapers from both cultures to develop Coctail, a performance piece around this imaginary character.

My project is divided in four phases:

Phase 1During this stage of the investigation, I will select news articles, stories and events from social life in Iceland and Mexico. This investigation will work towards building a character based on the fusion of both countries’ contemporary history.For example, today April 14, 2017, I looked on Mexican and Icelander newspapers the most relevant social news story, according to that website:[M] = México: “At the side of the Mexico-Pachuca highway, the body of an unk-nown man was found with gunshot wounds. The authorities believe he was victim of a robbery in the town of San Juan Ixhuatepec.”[I] = Iceland: “Photographer Gunnar Gunnarsson lives in Iceland and through his Instagram account decided to share the beauty of the most intense snowstorm registered in the country.”The fusion of both stories would go towards something like this:[Coctail]: I went out, barefoot, to see the snow for the first time in my life. I had never felt the snow in my feet. It was a moment of pleasure through my whole body. When I decided to get inside the house, I counted the little money I had left until the end of the month. I was very anxious—I suddenly thought: “how easy it would be to have the courage to steal, just like that, without any guilty feelings.”This is the proposed procedure: to subtract information from news sources about social life in both countries and create a little event in the character’s life: [M] + [I] = [Coctail].I will create and define Coctail’s life story just as events unfold in real time.

Phase 2The development of the character through certain events will continue in this stage through a on-stage experimentation laboratory, transforming the textual investigation in a creative act exploring with different disciplines: dance, theatre, music, poetry, set and costume design, and so on.The purpose of this laboratory will be the crystalizing exercise of improvisation, play and imagination based on the compiled information, directed at developing a perfor-mance piece.As it is my main language, I will take dance as the structural point for the following example:[I] + [M]: Bjork in her last visit to Mexico danced salsa music.[Coctail]: This character likes salsa and dances like Bjork.Through the experimentation of movement, a contemporary dance scene will unfold.During this period, I will work in several different spaces directly related with Coctail’s daily life; I will find places to develop the character’s context, such as, for example, a bar where tequila is served. In this search I will also look for places to show the finished performance piece.

Phase 3During this period, I will structure the dance, theatre, music, visual and performative material resulting from the laboratory. In this stage of the process, I will blend all the skills I’ve learned and developed during the MFA to now consciously develop the staging process.I will concentrate on the creation of a performance piece and a step outline for the performative actions of the piece. All other discipline’s collaborations will be directly integrated to the outline in this phase, resulting in the creation, rehearsal and staging of Coctail.

Phase 4In this stage, I will create a digital archive for the piece, which will include images, videos, news, music, poetry, and so on.This phase will also include the continuity of the piece, according to two main strate-gies: (1) to search for alternative places to show the piece throughout Reykjavík; and (2) to apply for festivals internationally, with a special emphasis in both Iceland and Mexico.

Coctail will be a character that, inside a performative action, will develop as a piece and will combine Icelandic and Mexican cultures. It will be a visceral, euphoric and touching work that will build bridges between two countries far away, to move the audience closer in a unique space in an exercise on reflection from unknown people meeting in the same place at the same time to come close to a character that is both themselves and a total stranger.

PRO

YEC

T PR

OPO

SAL

2

Project: Coctail

I am fascinated by the human condition. I’m intrigued by the shaping of a human being: scientist say we are made of atoms, but I think we are made of stories. In Mexico we see reality exceeding fiction every day—that’s why I am interested in the research of contemporary social events to expand them on stage to talk about ourselves, Mexicans and Icelanders.In this project I propose to create a character based on the human events to occur on both Iceland and Mexico during my Reykjavík residence. This way, I propose a piece in which information about both cultures will be mixed in the same charac-ter to a specular effect.The process will include an investigation, compilation, and analysis of news sites and newspapers from both cultures to develop Coctail, a performance piece around this imaginary character.

My project is divided in four phases:

Phase 1During this stage of the investigation, I will select news articles, stories and events from social life in Iceland and Mexico. This investigation will work towards building a character based on the fusion of both countries’ contemporary history.For example, today April 14, 2017, I looked on Mexican and Icelander newspapers the most relevant social news story, according to that website:[M] = México: “At the side of the Mexico-Pachuca highway, the body of an unk-nown man was found with gunshot wounds. The authorities believe he was victim of a robbery in the town of San Juan Ixhuatepec.”[I] = Iceland: “Photographer Gunnar Gunnarsson lives in Iceland and through his Instagram account decided to share the beauty of the most intense snowstorm registered in the country.”The fusion of both stories would go towards something like this:[Coctail]: I went out, barefoot, to see the snow for the first time in my life. I had never felt the snow in my feet. It was a moment of pleasure through my whole body. When I decided to get inside the house, I counted the little money I had left until the end of the month. I was very anxious—I suddenly thought: “how easy it would be to have the courage to steal, just like that, without any guilty feelings.”This is the proposed procedure: to subtract information from news sources about social life in both countries and create a little event in the character’s life: [M] + [I] = [Coctail].I will create and define Coctail’s life story just as events unfold in real time.

Phase 2The development of the character through certain events will continue in this stage through a on-stage experimentation laboratory, transforming the textual investigation in a creative act exploring with different disciplines: dance, theatre, music, poetry, set and costume design, and so on.The purpose of this laboratory will be the crystalizing exercise of improvisation, play and imagination based on the compiled information, directed at developing a perfor-mance piece.As it is my main language, I will take dance as the structural point for the following example:[I] + [M]: Bjork in her last visit to Mexico danced salsa music.[Coctail]: This character likes salsa and dances like Bjork.Through the experimentation of movement, a contemporary dance scene will unfold.During this period, I will work in several different spaces directly related with Coctail’s daily life; I will find places to develop the character’s context, such as, for example, a bar where tequila is served. In this search I will also look for places to show the finished performance piece.

Phase 3During this period, I will structure the dance, theatre, music, visual and performative material resulting from the laboratory. In this stage of the process, I will blend all the skills I’ve learned and developed during the MFA to now consciously develop the staging process.I will concentrate on the creation of a performance piece and a step outline for the performative actions of the piece. All other discipline’s collaborations will be directly integrated to the outline in this phase, resulting in the creation, rehearsal and staging of Coctail.

Phase 4In this stage, I will create a digital archive for the piece, which will include images, videos, news, music, poetry, and so on.This phase will also include the continuity of the piece, according to two main strate-gies: (1) to search for alternative places to show the piece throughout Reykjavík; and (2) to apply for festivals internationally, with a special emphasis in both Iceland and Mexico.

Coctail will be a character that, inside a performative action, will develop as a piece and will combine Icelandic and Mexican cultures. It will be a visceral, euphoric and touching work that will build bridges between two countries far away, to move the audience closer in a unique space in an exercise on reflection from unknown people meeting in the same place at the same time to come close to a character that is both themselves and a total stranger.