“Inspiration just happens, you don’t have to look for it, but be open to it” An interview with Sara Colomino. Catalunya, Spain.

What do you enjoy about working with IDI, with Harriet, and how has your experience been generally? 

I met Harried 5 or 6 years ago, but we just met and then when IDI started, Harriet contacted Raul and he contacted me spontaneously to take part in a little improv with Harriet. It was very unexpected and it was a very fun and beautiful experience. We kept in touch and I then I was involved in fre3bodies giving some classes. It is interesting to see how Harriet has done this huge work and achieves to make IDI a little bit bigger every year, and it seems like it is growing like a big tree. I am very grateful to be a little part of it.

Do you have ideas about your future collaborations with Harriet and the IDI? 

I don’t know! Harriet keeps surprising me, you never know. She asked me if I wanted to be involved in this year’s event, which is already very exciting. In the future, I want to keep collaborating with people and seeing IDI evolve. Relating more my performance to teaching within the project would be really interesting.

How did your journey towards dance start? 

I started when I was 4 years old. I’m from Sitges, a small town close to Barcelona and I started in a small studio here. I started because my mom liked to dance and she was not able to do it when she was young so she decided to put me in ballet classes when I was 4, and by the age of 12 I started to go to a more professional school in Barcelona from Monday to Saturday. By the age of 13/ 14, I decided that I wanted to do this, although I was good at school, I liked how dance made me feel.  When I was 14 I really wanted to become a ballet dancer, but slowly it started to turn to neo-classical and then into contemporary dance thanks to my mentor at that time. He told me to try something new because I am quite tall and strong, so I was always getting a solist role and I was not dancing with a male partner. Moving freely and sensing real things instead of trying to be a fairy or something unreal, was very new to me. I started to study contemporary dance at Rotterdam University and later I went to the US, New York, with a scholarship. It was very special, but also very time-consuming. After two years I decided to come back, and I started to work on a little project based in Barcelona. I also collaborated with a company in Sweden, and then I also have been working with Raul Tamez for 4 years. Now I also teach at the IAB, and I am very happy with what I am doing. 

What power and positive impact has dance and corporal expression in your opinion? what can dance achieve?  

Movement is healing, moving your body in space and tensing your body, the energy of the space and the people around yourself, all of this is therapeutic. This is my personal relation towards movement, but I think it can be a general sensation. Even if you dance just for a workout you don’t realise it, but your body knows it, dance has the power of healing and that is why you keep doing it. So for me, I keep dancing because of this holistic sense of the body of the space and the atmosphere. After coming back from New York because I was overworked, I said I need time off from dancing. I went 4 days without dancing and then I had to go back, it is kind of an addiction. It is the only way I can heal, by moving.

What do you find the most beautiful part of your job and working in the performing arts? 

It’s the intimate relationship you create with the space around you, with the movement, etc. But it is also the people you will meet and the connections that appear with these people. By travelling or working together on certain projects, you might meet someone today and in a few years very randomly again. It is a natural connection and reconnecting, and I think it is a very beautiful path-shaping process.

When you think about IDI, what is the first thing that comes to your mind in terms of dance?

For me, IDI is this really creative project. I see it as a ball of fire that keeps getting warmer and warmer and grows. If I describe it with words, I would say: creative; multidisciplinary; technology, because Harriet loves technology and she is very good at creating this holistic experience for students as well as performers; and also innovative, because Harriet keeps trying to explore new things and go on with the research. 

Do you want to tell us about your fondest memory of working with IDI? 

For me, the fondest experience was the first time working with IDI. When we were thrown into a space and I thought that it is a very cool space and the atmosphere is great, something magical came out. I could sense the energy and the atmosphere of the moment while we were improvising. It was a special moment, the sensation, and the atmosphere that was there. So if I could choose one moment, it would be the first time I worked on the project. This would always be the moment for me. Although, I must say, last year with Fre3bodies was quite exceptional as well, how dancers were open to work. They were prepared to make everything happen. A lot of energy was given and a lot of energy was received. This was something magical. 

Can you tell us about the effect that Covid had on your work, particularly within the project with IDI and if it made you rethink certain things about your job? 

With IDI during the pandemic, we had some meetings with Harriet to plan and see what is going to happen in the future. Our collaboration with Fre3bodies was actually happening during covid times, so some weeks before the event we had our fingers crossed and prayed the event would happen. 

For me personally, the quarantine wasn’t as bad as for others, I must say I was lucky. But for It was not as hard as it could be and it didn’t affect me as bad as others in the industry. I was in a lot of contact with my family since we live together in the same building. We had constant activities going on, so it was never a dull moment. With work, I was teaching online at IAB on my rooftop and I must say it was generally quite entertaining for me! Of course I was sad not to be in the studio and since a lot of events couldn’t happen and I wasn’t able to travel but I tried to stay positive. My life was not monotonous. 

What do you consider as opportunities for the future of dance? Maybe related technologies and multimedia? 

At the beginning, it was sad, since we couldn’t properly teach or dance. However, later people started to come up with new approaches using technology and became more and more creative. It also brought the quality of the performances. It opened a new door for dance or art in general. Using this technology, we were able to bring dance to people. We need to keep using technology to push through this channel further since we opened a new door for dance with technology. It was negative for many things but at the same time, it had a positive impact. Of course it is not the same as sensing the presence in the room. 

What is the biggest inspiration in your work? 

I look a lot into nature, but honestly, when I think about it, inspiration is everywhere. I like to observe a lot people talking, or just a leaf flying with the wind… observing little things, maybe it has nothing to do with me but I see a lot of potential everywhere, from random places, conversations or people… The more you observe, the more inspiration you are going to get. Inspiration just happens, you don’t have to look for it, but be open to it. It is always there. You need to allow the information to come into you and settle, afterwards, you can create. Sometimes you do not need to try, you should just listen to what is happening around you. Soon enough, when I listen I will find something or feel a sensation of the moment.

Sara Colomino, IDI professor, performer, collaborator, choreographer 2021

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