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The Dance Enthusiast presents Stacey Menchel Kussell's "Momentos Madrileños (Moments from Madrid)"
A Special Celebration of Madrid Day and the Dancing Spirit During the Pandemic of COVID-19
This Article is Available in Spanish, To Read the Entire piece in Spanish, Click here.
Madrid has been hit terribly by the Covid-19 crisis. In a special effort to honor the city on Madrid Day, The Dance Enthusiast is happy to present the online exclusive premiere of Momentos Madrileños (Moments from Madrid), a short dance film by contributor to The Dance Enthusiast and filmmaker, Stacey Menchel Kussell.
We hope you enjoy this film and share it widely with your friends in support and solidarity with the world-wide dance community who has been unable to study and share their work as usual during this pandemic.
Today we are one with our dance family in Madrid.
Con Mucho Amor y Respecto,
Christine Jowers, Erin Bomboy, Sammi Lim and The Dance Enthusiast Writers
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Hashtag: #getenthusedmadrid #enthusiasmarsemadrid
Momentos Madrileños
Producer/Director: Stacey Menchel Kussell
Director of Photography/Editor: Lewis Landini
Choreography: Marcat Dance
Music: "Tango Maria" by Francisco Tarrega performed by Pedro Abreu, "Asturiana" by Manuel De Falla performed by Duo Diez, "Sarabande" composed and performed by David Broza
The Behind -The- Scenes Article Below is written by Stacey Menchel Kussell
(To read this article in Spanish, click here)
Momentos Madrileños came together serendipitously. As a journalist and filmmaker, I have examined dance in Israel for over a decade, and I made my first documentary film Renewal about Jerusalem’s Vertigo Dance Company in 2015. I am particularly interested in the work of companies like Marcat Dance who began their creative process in Israel and then developed choreography abroad.
When we filmed in 2017, Marcat had just relocated to Spain from Tel Aviv a few months before. They were only beginning to put their stamp on the Spanish dance scene, and they embodied this irresistible sense of newness and adventure.
The film was the first collaboration of mine with Lewis Landini, a Glasgow-based filmmaker with an exceptional talent for capturing movement. I met Lewis when our work was featured together at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and we instantly clicked. We had been brainstorming for months about making a film together, so when the opportunity came about to film Marcat in Madrid, we jumped at the chance. Due to everyone’s tight schedules, we managed to research and shoot all of the footage in 72 hours. It was because of Mario Bermúdez Gil and Catherine Coury’s stamina and the luck of great weather and phenomenal, accommodating locations that we pulled it off.
There are multiple ideas that inform the film. Marcat’s work draws deeply from the Gaga training while incorporating the folkloric elements of Mario’s native Andalusia. The score, featuring music by Spanish composers Francisco Tárrega and Manuel de Falla alongside master Israeli guitarist David Broza, reinforces the shared Mediterranean influences of the dance. The film explores improvisation and sight-specific choreography, and, of course, celebrates Madrid. A historical gem, the Spanish capital surges with energy and continues to inspire me now more than ever.
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“Momentos Madrileños is about connection; to people, to passion, and to place. Those things are always important, but right now they feel particularly precious," says Lewis Landini, Director of Photography/Editor.
“With Gaga I feel like I’ve really unleashed myself. I feel like I danced in a cage for a long time and I had a shyness about me, until I realized how I could listen to my intuition. Because with Gaga I was given tools to listen more closely," says Catherine Coury, co-founder Marcat Dance.
“The Mediterranean is a super inspiring landscape. The climate, the sun, the energy of the people, the culture, the leisure, the laughter. I think all of that feeds into the work," says Mario Bermudez Gil, Co-Founder Marcat Dance.
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