ABOUT US
EYAS Dance Project is a contemporary dance company and cultural production studio that was founded in 2018 by co-directors, creators and dancers Carlos González and Seth Buckley.
With more than 40 performances in 2022 and 2023, a growing wave of excellent reviews and 5 nominations at the Valencian Performing Arts Awards 2022 and 2023, the company has been mentioned in SusyQ magazine (August 2022 edition) as one of seven emerging talents with the greatest trajectory in Spain’s contemporary dance sector.
Since its foundation, EYAS has presented works in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden and Spain, in festivals such as Madrid en Danza, MASDANZA, Abril en Danza, Festival Dantza Hirian, Menorca en Danza, Festival Figueres es MOU, Fastical Abanea, Dansant a la Marina, Festival L’Esclat Danza, Tendance Festival (Latina, Italy), Festival Trayectos de Zaragoza, FIND Festival (Cagliari, Sardinia) among others. The company has also received various awards from prestigious choreographic competitions such as the Internationales Solo Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, MASDANZA, Certamen Coreográfico de Tetuán and the Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid.
EYAS presents a hybrid model company, between author and repertory which is an innovative and fresh structure that focuses on presenting dance works by creators on a national and international level. Our goal as artistic directors is to share our creative language and showcase art with various dancers, creators, collaborators, musicians and other artists whom we admire and are inspired by. We are dedicated to sharing our language on stage, in choreography and creating, teaching, and through cultural mediation.
Our proposal as a company is a physical and sensorial dance with a focus on creating experiences that transcend the bodies of the dancers and reach each spectator in a unique and personal way. We centre movement investigation and revindicate pleasure, groove, magic and joy as integral parts of our creative processes. We enjoy working as a group with care at the core while challenging our habits in the studio and discovering new limits, encouraging research, introspection and continuous reinvention. We pay special attention to the layers of overlapping information added to the movement that include, fantasy, texture, form, sensations, changing physical stories, volume, delicacy or explosiveness, all with the objective to enrich the choreography and interpretive qualities. We look for a broader physical experience that submerges the spectator in our creative universe through the empathic connection that is generated when observing the dancers embodying a physical journey with honesty and presence.
MANIFESTO
Since the founding of our dance company, our work has been informed by our research on topics and themes surrounding gender, sensuality, feminism, sexual diversity, anti body terrorism and ethical human treatment. We prioritize creating safe spaces, guaranteeing worthy financial conditions, providing emotional support, practising conscious communication and bonding. Our artistic work is coloured by and envisioned through a Queer lens. Our inspiration draws from Queer artists from various mediums including fashion, make up design as well as musicians and performers from around the world. We are interested in the freedom of researching a full expressive range of possibilities and fantasies within the body and beyond matter.
We are a queer company that supports female, femme and LGBTQ+ creators and focuses on actively disrupting the systemic oppression that is perpetuated in dance companies, institutions and schools around the world. By honouring physical differences, we want to break free from the normative canons surrounding who and which bodies ‘belong on stage’. We approach the body without judgement and strive to eliminate all forms of body terrorism within and outside of the studio.
We believe in horizontality. Within our professional working environment, we take into account all human aspects of our entire team such as feelings, needs, insecurities and/or medical specifications.
We practice conscious transparent communication and positive reinforcement with all our company. We vehemently reject harmful, oppressive and fear-based tactics, that have extremely negative impact on the lives of many dancers, and are still so often used in academic and professional dance spheres around the world.
We trust that receiving a formal dance education or being a professional dancer should never be a traumatic experience. Dancers who experience body shaming from their teachers and mentors, frequently carry that trauma with them throughout their education and professional careers, where the oppression is upheld by choreographers or directors. Although we are a dance company, we believe dance education institutions are just as much in need of reform as professional institutions.
We focus on humanity as the basis of how we work. This approach merges with our artistic vision, in which vulnerability and honesty in the interpretation of our dancers are cultivated and are also the main source that feeds our artistic language in creations and stage.