Meet Íria Llena Gasol | Dancer & creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Íria Llena Gasol and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Íria, why did you pursue a creative career?
Dance for me has always been my way of expressing myself, of expressing everything that cannot be said with words. Letting my body free and investigating its movement made me discover the beauty and power of dance to communicate, to transmit, to channel energy, to understand my body.
I always had the desire to create, to interpret something that I could share with other people, be it the interaction as subject and audience, or student and teacher, or with other artists on the same stage.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a teacher, dancer and choreographer, from Lleida (Catalonia/Spain). Since I was very young I have been very curious and movement has been my way of transmitting and expressing my feelings. I started dancing at a very young age, at that age you learn technique and you learn from observing and from everything that your teachers can teach you. You grow and evolve and the knowledge you acquire gives you experience and you learn to place it where you need it, in my case, towards the search for my movement, for what my body moves to express. When I discovered the facet of improvisation, of contemporary dance technique, I fell in love with that freedom and I saw clearly where I wanted to go and how I wanted to continue learning.

You never stop learning, and my facet as a student is still very present, but since about 6 years ago I started to create my own works, dance solos, duets; with each one of them I have learnt to improve myself. The part that could summarize what my works have in common, is that it enriches me a lot to collaborate with other multidisciplinary artists that I know that they enhance and enrich my works.

I consider myself an emerging artist who still has a lot to learn, but who is passionate about sharing her concerns and research through dance and art.

I would like to tell you about my latest project, entitled “Anatomy of a bathtub” 2020 (Anatomia d’una banyera) is a performing arts piece “dance solo” that fuses sign language with dance.
The project tries to give the viewer an accessible performing arts work, without having to adapt the work performed for hearing people to a deaf audience. The format of the play has a scope that encourages and invites the integration of a social group, in this case a deaf person, to have a greater participation in the cultural scene.

I start from the idea of silence as a place of communication, where oral words cannot communicate but gestures, faces, looks, signs and dance can.
And I asked myself these questions:
– Why do hearing people attach so much importance to the spoken word?
– Why do we forget or not pay attention to gestures, looks…?
– If we were trying to have a conversation underwater, we would have to find another way to communicate, wouldn’t we?
of communicating, shouldn’t we?

I came across a book of poetry by the writer Júlia Peró entitled “Anatomía de una bañera” (Anatomy of a bathtub) and it connected me with water and its possibilities. I asked her to write an exclusive poetic text for the play that dealt with the different ways of communicating, where looks, silences, gestures and movement express more than words.

I have been studying Catalan sign language for 4 years, because of my work as a teacher and my social concern I wanted to get closer and learn and have more communication tools, I felt that at a social level hearing people have to learn to open and facilitate access to diversity and enrich each other from this social plurality that makes us grow day by day.

I fell in love with this language and it inspired me to start this project, always give respect and a critical look to people like me, listeners, who forget that there are also other ways of listening and understanding each other.

Through movement, vibrations and sign language I propose
listen through the skin and the gaze.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I currently live in Barcelona, ​​and I would start the itinerary through this wonderful city. Not only for its famous architecture but also for the climate and the character of its people, welcoming and friendly. It has a lot of cultural offer and close to fantastic natural sites. I like cities, but I was born in a very small town and for me the nature of the place is an essential requirement. Catalonia, apart from its beautiful coasts, has some mountains that I love (The Pyrenees).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Obviously to Lyli Brick for her words towards my work, I admire her work very much. Also to the writer Júlia Peró because her poetic work inspires me and without her delicate words my latest work would not be possible, and also to my sign language teachers for their advice and help in the creation of my project.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iria_llenagasol/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyf3T0iP-z2S2IlEE5Q5eTw

Other: https://vimeo.com/165854908 – Vimeo: ÍRIA LLENA GASOL

Image Credits
Ibai Acevedo Jordi Siscart Claudia Herrán MW fotografía Nicolás Rivera Photography Olga Segura