We are going to make you dance. Chasing Patti Smith

We have chased Patti Smith along all her creations for more than two years. We are not sure if it was because of the stubbornness of a naive child or because of the obsession of people in love. Although our original enthusiasm arose from our desire to make Patti Smith materialize in some way, the journey has taken us to the opposite point: making her absence possible. It is through dance that most people talk about Patti Smith. Because Patti Smith is in continuous movement. The impossible task of grabbing her becomes a dance.

This work shows the long search carried out, driven by our longing to know her better. It focuses on this desire, the frustrated desire of knowing the person behind Patti Smith to be able to represent her in dance. We insisted on creating a work about a person who seemed reluctant to be represented by dance and who was always in a state of constant movement.

Two dancers on stage, conspiring to weave her story through delirious bodies that act, like Patti, as shields. But Patti Smith also dances in this piece: her intangible presence hanging, invisible, in the space; her ghost dancing while the ghost of her voice resounds in the shadows.

Dance expresses all the frenetic exteriorization central in the construction of the legend of Patti Smith. Unable to grasp her, we could only reflect on her iconic status. To the point of thinking that this iconic status was her most significant self, a distant yet carefully created figure. As it became increasingly difficult to get to know her well, she became closer and more present in our work. Therefore, this work is a representation of the most intimate yet most public details of the traditional legend that Patti Smith became.

Idea, direction and choreography: Meritxell Barberá & Inma García.

Scriptwriting direction: Roberto Fratini.

Original music: David Barberá (Caldo).

Music: Patti Smith and Monteverdi.

Audiovisuals: Josep F. Sanmartín, Juan Mi Ponce, Mikel Labastida, Alejandra Mora, Daryna Kratenko, Sergio Sanisidro, Juan López, Rocío Garriga and Sergi Palau.

Video Mapping: Sergi Palau

Stage design: Josep F.Sanmartín (Pequeño Dragón), Taiat Dansa and Roberto Fratini.

Photography: Juan Miguel Ponce.

Wardrobe: Taiat Dansa and Siemprevivas.

Production and promotion: Maríaje Mercader.

Comunication and social media: Andrea R. Lluch.

Pomotion: Inventa.

Coproduction: Teatres de la Generalitat Valenciana, Ministerio de Cultura de España (INAEM), Embajada Española en Nueva York, Baryshnikov Arts Center de New York, CPR Studio Brooklyn de New York, Festival Tanz im August de Berlín,Mercat de les Flors de Barcelona, Valencian International University (VIU) y Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny de València (EASD).