Dancing the lake

The second story of beauty is that of a flamenco dancer who comes to the lakeshore to practise and who created a powerful video dancing on the remains of the old landing stage.

Yes, I have a little platform, seventy centimetres by seventy centimetres, just enough room for my size 39 feet. I take my little dance platform to the lake and, wherever I find a quiet spot where I can be a little on my own, I set it down and practise there. People passing by often seem rather uncomfortable. They look at me and immediately look away again. As if to say, “Did I really see that? How strange!” “Is there really something going on over there?” So yes, I think the people watching a scene like that are actually more embarrassed than I am. I have always searched for places that can speak to me. And I immediately felt that the lake could help me with this artistic project I had in mind. A project that, incidentally, was struggling to take shape, because the music is by a Basque singer-songwriter called Mikel Laboa. I was going through a real crisis because I could not find a way into it, I could not find a path to follow. And it was at the lake, with that sense of decay—because the landing stage really was half-destroyed, slowly collapsing into the water—that I found the inspiration I needed to bring this artistic project to life. For me, the importance of places like these is that they offer you another home beyond the one you already have. They give you another stage where you can let yourself go and become a vessel. In a way, I make myself available, transparent, so that something can enter. And the lake has always been able to do that for me, throughout my creative exploration. Always. Many years ago, people used to dance at the lake, and that became my link to the place. I thought, well, look at that! As a teenager, I used to go to the discos that were there, and so this whole idea... Dance as ritual. Dance at the lake as a ritual. A sound ritual, because the lake itself has sounds. The lake has its own voice. I have often wandered around it at night, making recordings. A little bird, the splash of water, the movement of the water itself. There is an entire world of sound that can connect with us. If we listen to it, it speaks to us. It is music.