Hailing from Lima, Peru, Compañía Danza PUCP are performing for the first time in the UK. A short tour this January sees the company give its UK premiere of ‘Laberinto’, a new work by ground breaking choreographer and self-styled Professor of misconstruction, Bristol-based Lea Anderson (The Cholmondeleys & The Featherstoneaughs).
Created in collaboration with Peruvian artists and long-time collaborator, composer Steve Blake, ‘Laberinto’ continues Anderson’s work around misconstruction of reimagined lost dances, leading the audience on a serpentine journey into the labyrinth, into worlds beyond death. Choreographed with Anderson’s trademark wit and gestural detail, Laberinto’s surreal world draws upon pre-Incan 2D imagery peppered with cross-cultural references including Ancient Greek fauns and nymphs, Betty Boop and Cab Calloway.
Anderson’s relationship with Compañía Danza PUCP was formed during a British Council and Arts Council England funded period of research and choreography in Peru to create a spite specific dance with 34 dancers from The Elenco Nacional de Folclore. Meeting Fernando Castro, the Cultural Manager for dance at Lima’s Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), Castro suggested a collaboration for a new piece of work.
With Peru’s contemporary dance scene still very much in its fledgling years, the company was formed largely to stop the University’s dance graduates leaving the country to look for work. “We are building a contemporary dance world from scratch,” Castro explains. “We support our students and graduates not just to dance but also to make, teach, programme and grow audiences.”
“Having spent time working with Lea, we’re excited to experience the UK ‘s contemporary dance scene and better understand the world that Lea comes from, while letting people know who we are, where we come from, our culture and our history,” says Castro.
Compañia Danza PUCP is founded by Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). Dance company members are drawn from the University dance programme’s graduates. This is the company’s first overseas tour, following performances of Laberinto to communities and audiences in Lima
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