Quito, Ecuador
Walking gently in paradise

By Andrew Princz
Reporting from Quito for Ballet International Tanz Aktuell

One word of advice to any visitor to Ecuador: walk gently after visiting paradise. Only then should you cautiously climb to this, the capital Quito, perched high and nestled among mountains, valleys and volcanoes. I say this to bemuse you since the trajectory in my latest voyage took me to the easternmost Galapagos Island of San Cristóbal, true heaven on earth. Where the famed Charles Darwin discovered the keys to life on earth. It was a place to sleep among the sea lions, to watch curious iguanas, massive turtles, and to see large birds diving fast and furious into a pure-blue sea.

Then we flew inland to the capital, Quito, 2,800 metres above sea level. Even after taking deep breaths there was very little oxygen to grasp. Walk slowly, they said, don't overexert yourself. Regardless of advice to the contrary, on this voyage I was taken yet higher to visit the heights of the snow-capped volcano Cotopaxi, which itself is well upwards of 5,000 metres high. It is one of the worlds highest active volcano's.

As much as I love watching volcano's: it was like a knockout punch. While I was not dead I did suspect that I was close to it, such was my dizziness and loss of stamina. Out of breath and seeped of any semblance of energy, I spent the following days in an elegant colonial-style hotel between baths, trying to garner strength ... taking yet more baths, then coughing. Between one of these sets of miseries my room phone rang and rang. Who could be calling me here? I ignored the bells as I waded quietly in the steaming-hot water until my skin took the wrinkled form of a soft rotting apple-peel.

As I crawled out of my pond the phone wailed out its cries again. I eventually ceded, and answered. "Signor," said an anxious voice from the reception, "you have guests waiting to see you!"

Like an awkward sea lion waddling on a beachfront and disturbed from its lazy life, I very slowly made my way through the colonnaded archways towards my mysterious visitors.

He introduced himself as Kléver Viera, the director the Grupo El Arrebato. Kléver had intently piercing eyes, a majestic form and a mysterious presence. He could have been the devil himself, or a suave Casanova. There was something very powerful and masculine about him. Next to him was an ever so beautiful, feminine, attractive dancer, Maria Sol Rosero. And there I was, feeble and useless, like a dehydrated apple among an abundance of exotic fruit.

My mind began, at least temporarily, to emerge from my nausea, delving into the subject of new dance in Ecuador. Kléver talked about this with passion and eloquence. "Contemporary dance represents liberty and the unique space of the avant-garde," he said, "Yet even if it is avant-garde, it is also somewhat occultist, it is intimate, and is now only developing here."

"It is the art form that is most contested and rebellious in Ecuador, and is little understood little valorized."

A remote Quito, as beautiful as its colonial architecture is, is not known as one of the great cultural capitals of South America. Located on the continents western corner it remains overshadowed by Buenos Aries, Bogota or even Lima, with larger contemporary companies rarely visiting, he said.

"In a way we can say that we have used this to our advantage since dance in Ecuador remains authentic to our country," he went on.

El Arrebato is a Quito-based independent dance company performing throughout the country, and are based in the Centre Culturel Mama Cuchara, a part of the Teatro Nacional Sucre. The company performs pieces like "Yo, otro eco", "Ba. ch" and others at local festivals including the Festival Spondylus, Alas de la Danza, the Festival of Manta the Festival de Ambato or the Mujeres en la Danza. They have even performed in unusual spaces, including a burned out theatre in Quito.

"Over the past five or six years there has been many waves of creation in theatre, acrobatics and alternative dance," said Kléver, "Many new groups have been created and as a result there has been an unprecedented amount of opportunities for the youth to create."

Kléver and Maria left me a video of an old/new work of the company, and bid me farewell. It was "Vista de Ojos", referring to a game that little kids play, pulling down their pants in front of the world. And so this is what Grupo El Arrebato wish to do, Maria told me, to reveal some of the tough realities of Ecuadorian society. The piece was originally created in 2000, and 'recycled', or re-created in 2006.

The work is a fast-paced, contemporary, playful, many-faceted and a window into the world that is Ecuador, a unique choreographic language full of texture, pathos and intensity.

"I am interested in identity, since I come from the mountains, and face my Indian roots, and within this is my search for identity," said Kléver, "There is also the memory of social manifestations and their roots, urbanism, and references to the underworld, the alternative, the underground and the personalities that inhabit it."

I bid farewell to my friends, once again retreating into my seclusion. Only now, I was a richer man.