Vagabond Princess

Horacio Cifuentes

This year I had the great honour of collaborating with Horacio Cifuentes in Berlin. The Dying Swan. The first piece he made was for Patricia Zarnovican and can be seen HERE

He choreographed a new piece for me using a version of Le Cygne I found by Clara Rockmore.

We worked together to construct the framework, I then went away and developed the piece alone in preparation to perform it for him at The 9th International Summer Festival in Berlin this Summer. The festival is organized by Beata and Horacio, bringing performers from all over the world every year.

I created my costume based on sketches by Horacio himself. He wanted to costume to be black and feature feathers, he said there has never been a black costume for the Dying Swan, so this would be a first!

I used found chicken feathers (died of natural causes) and plenty of Victorian age jet beads. I included antique appliques and scraps of fabric from my family collection dating back to Edwardian times. It was wonderful to have guidelines for the costume from Horacio, as usually my costuming process is a confusing and lengthy process… Having had no seamstress training and being perfectionist in the extreme, a bra can take me 2 years to come to some sort of conclusion and still I might take it apart and start again!

I cannot thank Horacio enough for trusting me with his vision. It’s the first time I have had any choreographer make a solo for me, especially one of such high caliber and experience, it was wonderful.

Here is the result:

Horacio also invited Rachel Brice, Patricia Zarnovican, myself to perform a trio entitled “A Tribute to Miss Ruth”

He made the piece with Ruth st Denis as inspiration. Long elegant lines, beautiful shapes and moving musical choice. It was such a pleasure to work on the piece with Horacio as our director. I loved every moment of the rehearsals with dear friends I rarely get to see these days. Just getting the three of us in the same country at the same time was a real challenge!

I cannot thank Horacio enough for trusting us with his work. I hope you enjoy watching this as much we enjoyed practicing and performing it:

VIMEO LINK

I am pleased to be returning to Berlin very soon for The Tribal Bash! I will be teaching alongside Patricia Zarnovican, Manca Pavli and Tjarda. Beata and Horacio will also be sharing their expertise each day of the intensive. This event is so much fun and provides the attendees with so much material covering all aspects of Belly Dance, geared towards the Tribal dancer but with emphasis on cross training! Booking information can be found HERE

If you have not heard of Horacio and Beata Cifuentes do visit their website HERE You can also buy Horacio’s autobiography “Confessions of a Male Belly Dancer” HERE Well worth a read!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 at 10:15 am and is filed under Belly Dance, Friends, Inspiration, Tribal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.