La Brisa

“How can we remember what we have not lived? How can we answer questions that did not belong to us but suddenly do? How can we get our bodies to congregate, to gather in a specific encounter without mourning, without storm?” —Gabriel Yépez

The bar La Brisa was infamous in Ciudad Juárez in the 1990s as a haven of cultural resistance and fierce activism. It was run by a group of known prostitutes who committed their resources to AIDS prevention and awareness, until the bar was burned to the ground by vandals. The motivations for the attack remain unclear, but the tragedy is part of a chain of sinister events that marked the start of a new national reality, dominated by unprecedented criminal, military and political violence. The women who founded the bar are now untraceable. They have disappeared.
In a work that resists the conventions of both dance and theater, director Tamara Cubas and her cast of four women excavate an elusive history, offering different and diverse ways of approaching the body, locating memory and articulating experience. Using rhythm and task, La Brisa conjures the bar’s culture and its community—poets, writers, musicians and artists of all forms, who mingle among the city’s many transients—in a visually arresting performance that grapples with a constantly shifting narrative, and an historical site now lost.

La Brisa is presented in Spanish with English supertitles.

Director: Tamara Cubas
Performers: Alicia Laguna, Zuadd Atala, Natalia Miranda and Tamara Cubas

Assistant Dramaturg: Gabriel Calderón
Scenic and Lighting Design: Jesús Hernández
Sound Design: Francisco Lapetina
Text: Gabriel Calderón, Zuadd Atala, Alicia Laguna, Tamara Cubas and AGEPE Translations: Cristina Fernandez
Assistant: Jimena Hinojosa
Company Administrator: Sandra Patricia Díaz Sánchez
Technical Assistant: Moisés Rosas
Executive Producer: Alicia Laguna
Production: Iberescena and Teatro Línea de Sombra

Tamara Cubas (˚1972) lives and works in her home country Uruguay. She received a bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from the National School of Fine Arts Institute at the University of the Republic of Uruguay (IENBA/UDELAR) and she holds a master’s in Art and Technology from the School of the Arts (EMMA) in Utrecht, The Netherlands. She is an EMMA Award winner – Image & Technology. Tamara Cubas studied contemporary dance at the Contradanza School in Montevideo, working with several teachers such as Marcelo Evelin, Juan Kruz, Olga Mesa, Juan Dominguez, Thomas Lehmen, David Zambrano, and Daniel Leckoff. She has danced with the Brazilian choreographer Marcelo Evelin and Luciana Achugar from Uruguay; she has produced videos for the company Contradanza (Uruguay), Demolition Inc. and The Meekers (The Netherlands), among others. Her works have been exhibited in Latin America, Europe and the United States. Tamara Cubas is artistic co-director of the Perro Rabioso collective, which has realized several projects related to artistic distribution, education and production. Among her latest works it is worth mentioning the performing arts pieces Actos de Amor Perdidos (2010), Multitud (Mexico 2011, Montevideo 2013), Puto Gallo Conquistador (2014), as well as the exhibition El día mas hermoso (Montevideo 2012). Her stage creations have a strong visual component. In the last years Tamara Cubas has been investigating about memory and the recent past in a variety of supports (stage, photography, video, performance), situating herself at the intersection of several generations. In May 2015 Tamara Cubas will represent Uruguay at the 12th Havana Biennial with Multitud.