ROBERTO OLIVAN
This international creator started his training at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. The Belgian capital was the key point in the strengthening of his artistic career. He took his first steps as a professional dancer at Rosas dance company, directed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. He also performed under the direction of renowned directors such as Robert Wilson, Tom Jansen and Josse de Pauw.
Currently, Roberto is the director of the dance company R.O.P.A. – Roberto Olivan Performing Arts. The company was created in Brussels in 2001. He also is the artistic director and founder of the Festival Deltebre Dansa, an international event that has taken place annually since 2004.
Olivan creates commissioned works for dance companies, universities, dance institutions and schools all over the world. His career has been very versatile. In recent years, he has been teaching at workshops around the world and has worked as a choreographer and performer in the film industry.
He has been the artistic director of important cultural events and on the jury at dance competitions. Olivan has also participated in dance sectoral meetings held by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Catalonia and he is a member of the Advisory Council for Culture in Terres de l’Ebre region, also overseen by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Catalonia.
His career has been recognised all over the world. He has received the following awards: Premi Nacional de Cultura 2014 (Catalonia, Spain), Ciutat de Barcelona 2013 (Catalonia, Spain), Sebastià Gasch FAD Awards Of Paratheatrical Arts 2012 (Catalonia, Spain), Prix SACD de la Création Chorégraphique 2001 from the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (Belgium) as well as several other prize nominations.
Instinct as a source of movement
Roberto Olivan forges dance from physicality, body power and technique, taking the body to extreme situations. His goal is to encourage loosing fear of moving in a specific context. The workshop is especially focused on generating dance material from our animal instincts and our own creativity. Moreover, it strengthens group confidence by building safe conclusions from difficult situations.
Moving efficiently becomes an important issue, but there are other important purposes too. Working with gravity, the consciousness of inner sensations, such as breathing, and the visualisation of energy released by movement. This consciousness of body unites mind and physical structure relating it to spatial energies, to others and to oneself.
In this sense, the body becomes a tool of projection for the physical and emotional flow. The force of mental images, such as lines and structures around and in the body, are used to define and help us better understand the body’s functionality.
After learning and using many kinds of dance techniques, Olivan discovered their limitations for artistic expression. Whilst accepting the necessity for these conventional techniques, he knows that using them exclusively curtails freedom in dance and in the performers. This is why Olivan is embarked on a constant quest for the freedom that creates singular forms, refining his technique in order to develop a unique language that can be recognised as his own style, a language focused on speed and precision.
