ESTER GUNTÍN

Quiso Negre

Institut del Teatre Dance Award 2023

“But where danger is, that which saves us also grows”
F. Hölderlin

Quiso negro explores the idea of disappearance through action by means of the ritual use of acoustic, kinetic, and iconographic patterns. To do so, it draws on tarantism and its arsenal of myths to move through a very broad, even contradictory spectrum of present-day scenarios of possession and catharsis: from forms of mourning at ritualised burials to the unregulated ecstasy of the rave. The work seeks the potential of the body and the image on stage in order to go beyond choreography.

Quiso Negre speaks of the death in each person and can be seen as a journey through its life-affirming aspects: a katabasis, a festive descent.

The Institut del Teatre Dance Award promotes the work of young creators and performers who have graduated from the Professional Dance Conservatory (CPD), the Higher Dance Conservatory (CSD), and IT Dansa, the Institut del Teatre's young dance company; it offers them financial support for production and presents the winning piece in collaboration with Barcelona's Grec Festival.

Ester Guntín graduated in Humanities and in Choreography and Performance from the Institut del Teatre's Higher Dance Conservatory and holds a Master's degree in comparative studies of art, philosophy, and literature from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She has presented work at Sismògraf Olot, CCCB Barcelona, RIDCC Rotterdam, Portugal's Quinzena de Dansa, and TanzLabor Ulm, and has collaborated with Marcos Morau, Silvia Delagneau, Marta Pazos, and Joan Morey, among others.

In 2024 she collaborates on Ifigènia at Teatre Lliure and directs the staging of a small-format opera at Gran Teatre del Liceu that forms part of the show Òh!pera, which can be seen in this year's edition of Barcelona's Grec Festival.