PEREGRINA (PILGRIM WOMAN)

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MUCH THANKS to you all for your support. We are very happy and all of your contributions will now be used to fund the pre production and production of the film.

We still need to help to fund the post production budget so we will implement some fundraising strategies. Hopefully, with good stills and a trailer we think it will be much easier to raise the funds needed. Nevertheless, we manage to succeed in this campaign and now we have that little push in our goal thanks to you all.

Still, you still can be part of this by Pre-Ordering the DVD by making a PayPal payment (carlo.brescia@gmail.com) or an international bank transfer to the following account:

Account Nr: 00237512137546513542 (IBAN in Europe)
SWIFT Code: BCPLPEPL (or BIC)
Transit Code: 67015355
Bank Name: BANCO DE CREDITO
City of Bank: LIMA
Country of Bank: PERU

Thanks again!

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PEREGRINA is a 25 minute long screen dance film project to be filmed in June of 2012 in the Andean region of Ancash in Peru. In videodance the body’s movement is crafted and composed for the screen. This videodance project is about a female pilgrim (peregrina, in Spanish) and her sacred journey to an ancient shrine.

The film will explore the relationship between consciousness, body movement, and natural and cultural landscapes through the staging of a pilgrimage traveling eastward from the Pacific coast to the ceremonial center of Chavin, located in the central Andes of Peru. Once the character reaches the temple, she participates in an initiation ritual with a ‘teacher plant’ (Wachuma, also known as San Pedro Cactus, scientific name Trychocereus pachanoi) after which she meets the spirit that resides inside the temple and is reborn into a new level of consciousness.

The film’s structure is based on a mythic journey and will consist of four parts: A prologue (The Calling), a 1st act (Transit through natural landscapes), a 2nd act (Transit through cultural landscapes) and an epilogue (The Rebirth Dance). The 1st and 2nd acts are the core of the video and will occupy almost 80% of the total duration of the film. All four parts will be filmed in 10 days but a great deal of preparation will be necessary, such as rehearsals, costumes/props design, and a field expedition with the cast and part of the crew.

The Cast

MARISEL LA ROSA as The Pilgrim Woman

Dance Movement Therapist and Dancer. Her education in contemporary dance began when she was ten years old and she has attended several dance schools in Peru. She studied Dance Movement Therapy in Argentina after which she returned to live in Lima and has remained there since 2009. Her main interests concern “movement as creation”, “movement as healing”, the integration of mind, body, and spirit in Dance, the blending of physical and emotional health, as well as the use of dance as a means of self-knowledge and openness (Photograph by Carlos José Rouillon).

ANA ZAVALA RÍOS as The Priestess & Director of Choreography:

A dancer and choreographer. Her work is based on the combination and interaction of various disciplines of movement. ‘Body-time-space’ is a work elements as well as traditional and contemporary dance. Along with Oscar Naters forms the core of INTEGRO, one of the most important groups of contemporary dance in Peru.

I was born in Lima and I have lived for almost twelve years in Huaraz, a city located in the Peruvian Andes at 3000 meters above sea level. I am dedicated to the management of cultural projects, particularly audiovisual production concerning social or environmental issues. The PEREGRINA project will be my eighth production.

In this project I am consolidating a visual exploration of issues that have interested me since I came to live in Ancash’s Quechuan world. On one side are the themes of body awareness and expression that I have researched through my studies in anthropology and through the different physical activities that I have done, such as mountain climbing, biking and hiking. Then there are the issues of indigenous cultures, the Andean worldview, the Chavin culture and cultural landscapes that fascinate me sufficiently that I have produced documentaries and published magazines about them.

In addition to the issues mentioned above, this project also coincides with my career goal to implement projects that promote better relationships between people and themselves, with others (and future others), and with the natural environment. This project for me is not “just another film project”: this is a group project, an offering project, a medicinal project, a project intended as a tribute to the Andean world and its people which has given us so much, still gives to us, and will continue to give to us if we value it in the way it should always have been valued.

See Filmography here.

To know more about the project you can visit the blog at www.peregrinadance.wordpress.com

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