Compañía Nacional de Danza

With this work I would like to express intimate feelings and images: the presence of my roots whose very essence even after having been abroad for long periods of time and influenced by various other cultures I have always felt in my veins.

I have avoided using folk elements, historic references, anecdotes or allusions to characters, trying to communicate, through movement, the sensuality of the landscape, the sensitivity of its inhabitants and their uninhibited worship of the ephemeral, so characteristic of this Community.

Avoiding the stereotype has meant doing without the artifice of music, costumes and scenography in order to achieve simplification. This may seem somewhat cold if compared with the exuberance in the daily lives of our people; but I do hope to express that vitality through movement.

In order to achieve this, I have used percussion and wind sounds always wrapped upin the constant sound of water. I did this not only because they identify Valencian culture, but also because they have helped me to find movements closer to the earth, of a telluric strength, and therefore to get a better contrast for the most delicate movements. This is exemplified in the pas de deux of El Azahar.

I have simply tried to retrace my roots and those of my ancestors. I have tried to peel the orange to get to its flesh, the ludic and sensual spirit of this land, always intimately related to the sea. I dedicate this ballet to all those who, like myself, feel complicity with the Mediterranean.

Nacho Duato