My Neighbor Sky is a project of continuous creation and site specific between Oguri, a Japanese dancer based in Los Angeles (USA) and Andrés Corchero, a dancer from La Mancha who lives in Catalonia. The two met in Japan in 1986 and were members of the company Madre Juku, directed by Min Tanaka.
In Japan, as they danced and worked, Corchero and Oguri watched and shared the same sky. Afterwards, they went their separate ways, each to live their own lives, and they continued to work and dance under different skies. Almost thirty years later they met again in Barcelona and danced improvisedly in the streets of the Gràcia neighbourhood. As if no time has passed, they are inspired by each other’s body and dance, and, even though they are separated in space, their shadows seem to dance together. The connection is so strong that it makes you think that maybe they were sharing the same sky all those years, despite the distance.
My Neighbour Sky relives each new encounter between Corchero and Oguri, influenced by the experiences of the past, but also by the stimuli and inspiration of each physical space where it is performed. In Escenas do Cambio, the Theatre Garden and the installation Espellos, by Manolo Paz, in the Galician Forest, will be the settings for these new, ever-changing encounters under the same sky.
Please note: Due to the forecast of rain during the weekend, the two performances of «My neighbour sky» will take place under the arcades between the Sala Eisenman and the Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship. Meeting point: REGA 1 (next to the Gaiás Centre Museum).
Andrés Corchero
Dancer and choreographer born in Puertollano (Ciudad Real) and resident in Catalonia. A tireless explorer of the languages of the body and dance, he studies theatre, circus, contemporary mime and clowning. In 1985 he became acquainted with Butoh dance and decided to move to Tokyo, where he studied and worked with Min Tanaka and Kazuoh Ohno. He joined Tanaka’s company Madre-Juku, with which he tours Japan, Europe and the United States. He began his career as a choreographer in Barcelona with the show A un poeta futuro, the first of many collaborations with the poet and translator Feliu Formosa. He received, among others, the National Dance Prize of Catalonia in 2003 and the Al pas de la tarda 92 Prize from Radio Nacional de España.
Throughout his career, Corchero has collaborated with artists from various disciplines, such as the plastic artist Jordi Rocosa, the singer Silvia Pérez Cruz, the musician Ivo Sanos, the actors and directors Pep Ramis, Enric Ases and Piero Steiner, the pianist Agustí Fernández and the musician Joan Saura, among others. From 1993 to 2012 he directed the prestigious company Raravis with Rosa Muñoz.
From his reunion with Oguri came the ongoing creative project My Neighbour Sky (2012), as well as Return to Absence (2014), inspired by Samuel Beckett’s trilogy, the duo 451 (2020) and Body as Evidence (2022), both in honour of Ray Bradbury.
In the field of training, he continues the pedagogical work and dissemination of Body Weather that he started more than 30 years ago and gives regular classes and intensive workshops all over the world. Since 1998 he has been teaching at the Escola Superior d’Art Dramàtic and at the Conservatori Superior de Dansa del Institut del Teatre de Barcelona.
Oguri
Dancer and choreographer born in Gifu Prefecture (Japan) and based in California (USA), where he formed Body Weather Laboratory in Los Angeles with Roxanne Steinberg. For over 30 years, Oguri has been teaching and creating and producing dance and multimedia works that incorporate his large-scale sculptural installations in formal theatres and unconventional site-specific spaces around the world. Today, he continues to investigate the relationship between dance and the environment and the boundaries between performer and audience.
He develops projects in collaboration with musicians, sculptors, painters and poets, using literature, images from everyday life and simple materials to transform space and time with dance. He also plays a very active role in bringing dance to the general public.
In 2011 he formed the ARCANE Collective with Morleigh Steinberg, touring full productions and live shows. He has received numerous grants and awards in the United States, both regionally, nationally and internationally, including the 2018 United States Artist Doris Duke Fellowship.
