ROOTS IN TRANSIT

16-25 January 2004

Presentation| Program| Workshops | Invited Artists

Look at Transit 4 video (57′)

Roots are usually imagined sinking into the ground and going backwards in time. In cultural terms roots usually represent an existing identity to which people belong and which they sometimes wish to acknowledge. Roots in Transit would like to propose a different image: active, germinating, sprouting roots that point outwards, forwards and upwards. Roots which allow us to stand upright autonomously and move. Roots that give a boundless sense of future. Roots like seeds that we plant in the air, in the water, in places far away from the earth where we were born, or roots that lead us back into our environment of origin after having travelled across foreign landscapes.

Many young women search for a technical base and a professional identity among people whose social behaviour and habits are different, and in places where their mother tongue is not spoken. Theatre allows those of us who belong to a community of uprooted individuals to chose the mould where new and different roots will grow. Even women who strongly identify with their culture and ancestors rediscover the wisdom passed on from a living past. Biographical, professional, historical and cultural references and intentions compose intricate horizons in which only the need to belong and be accepted is shared.

The image of a network is made up of crossing lines and empty spaces. The experience of the women meeting within The Magdalena Project tells us that important information is contained in the spaces opened by the intersecting lines. The composite pattern of migration followed by women working in theatre creates similar spaces of fertile ground where roots can grow. Roots in Transit will give particular attention to geographical diversity, and to the simultaneous presence of women working in theatre, music and dance of classical or indigenous descent with women who confront a contemporary reality of global “con-fusion”. The programme consists of two parts: the first with practical workshops, demonstrations and performances; and the second with vocal and physical training (Cultivating), workshop demonstrations (Sowing), presentations (Orgins), videos, lectures, discussions, concerts, performances.

Julia Varley