To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Gabriela Mistral's Nobel Prize, this work returns that brings her poems to contemporary dance. Paulina Mellado offers an investigation into the diversity of the female body and the relationship between poetry and dance.
“The dancer is now dancing / the dance of losing everything she had. / She lets fall everything she had, / father and brothers, orchards and fields”. These are the first verses of The Dancer, a poem by Lagar that, along with other creations by Mistral, inspired the choreographer Paulina Mellado to create The Dancer. The work that premiered successfully in 2015 at GAM and returns ten years after that milestone.
On stage, seven incarnations of Gabriela Mistral, bodies of women and men, move between words, linking dance with writing. "The work discovers the poet-woman in search of refuge in her creative state. Writing and dance end up unfolding towards the poetic gesture as a gesture of creation and manages to approach her essence, her free spirit, her drive for struggle and contained dreams," explains Mellado.
The costumes are visually reminiscent of the Nobel Prize, from the materiality of the construction (sheep wool), the colors (different designs in earthy colors), structurally reinterpreting the garments, conditioning them for a new functionality in dance performance. On stage, the performers move around 9 removable wooden platforms with an iron base that are characterized by their different levels to the rhythm of the musical piece, composed of digital sounds, voices and wind sounds in the desert.
"This project is an opportunity to explore the deep connections between writing and dance, using the work of Gabriela Mistral as a starting point. By relating both disciplines (verse, stanza, meter/choreography, sequences, rhythm), we seek to generate a dialogue that transcends the textual and the corporal," concludes Mellado.
Company Cía Pe Mellado/ CIEC | Direction Paulina Mellado | Performers Marcela Retamales, Camila Jiménez, Gonzalo Venegas, Esteban Cerda, Cristián Hormazábal, Vannia Villagrán and Paulina Mellado | Scenography and Lighting José Antonio Palma | Musical Composition José Miguel Miranda | Visual Artist Richard Solís | Production Vannia Villagrán
Work presented by:
May 22 to 31, 2025
Thu to Sat — 7 p.m.
Sala B1 (Edificio B, piso 2)
$8,000 General
$5,200 Seniors, students, caregivers and people with disabilities
$4,800 General every Thursday
Not combinable with other promotions
-20% discount for Club La Tercera members (Friday to Saturday).
-2x1 General. BiblioGAM Membership and Teachers Membership only Friday.
-50% discount only on Friday for students of performing and musical arts, artistic schools and members of SIDARTE, SINATTAD, SCD, ADTRESS, CHILE ACTORS.
*Exclusive discounts for the general value. Not combinable with other promotions.
Discounts 50%, 2x1 and Caregivers only available at the GAM Ticket Office upon presentation of credentials.
10+ years | Duration: 40 min.
Accessibility
This montage does not use verbal language (only gestures).
Previous Seasons
The play premiered on GAM on April 10, 2015. It had a second season in November that same year. In 2016 it was presented in Santiago a thousand and in The best of GAM. In 2017 it had a season from April 6 to 16. In 2019 it is presented again between May 16 and July 9.