20191127_MUN_NoticiaMariaSiebald

Choreographer and dancer María Siebald (Santiago de Chile, 1980) has been exploring the world of deaf people for ten years, although she began to take an interest in this community in her childhood, when she saw the students of a high school for the deaf every day. "I saw them laughing, how they communicated and gesticulated, I was even a little envious for not understanding them", she says smiling, recently landed in Pamplona, coming from the Chilean capital. This Thursday, at 7:30 p.m., she presents at the Theater of the University of Navarra Museum Trasunto #2a show that brings poetry and dance to sign language. Tickets are 16 and 12 euros.

In the presentation of this work, Siebald, accompanied by Teresa Lasheras, assistant to the the direction of Performing Arts of the Museum, explained that it is "a show of poetry, dance and language signs, designed primarily for the deaf community but accessible to the occasional student. Both communities coexist as an audience and it is something unique from the moment people enter the conference room".

The choreographer explains that the starting point are poems that Luz Pichel, Ángela Segovia, Berta García Faet, Laura Casielles and Jessica Pujol wrote specifically for the show, with the premise that they would be taken to language of signs. "I am interested that the deaf spectator or the occasional student receive the message that the poets want to transmit and that it is not an adaptation staff of mine or of the interpreters, but that the interpreters are transformed into the poetry and the words of these poets," he points out.

FROM THE POEM TO LANGUAGE OF SIGNS

The work was carried out with the six deaf dancers that enter the stage and with an interpreter in language of Spanish signs occasional student. "We spent eight hours translating a poem into the language of signs to make it as specific as possible and, if we had any doubts, we called the author to see what she meant by that metaphor". In this sense, he explains that his mission statement was "to transfer the images, the metaphors that the poets gave us to the space and install them. All the geometric figures that appear on the floor are the spaces where the performers perform their poems. That design is not a prefixed idea, but a figure that emerges through movement".

In addition, there is also a poem by the deaf poet Miguel Angel Sampedro, who sets his poetic works in language of signs with videos. "We made a very nice work . He sent us the poem on video, I passed it to the interpreter and he asked a friend to translate it into words. He is the only one who doesn't have a voice. The text is projected and then you see it interpreted," he says.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE DANCE

Siebald emphasizes that "it is not necessary to know the language signs to enjoy or understand the show. First the written poem is projected and at the same time it is heard in the voice-overs of the poets, and then you see the dancer and have a full appreciation".

In addition, he recalls that "the deaf person, when watching the language of signs, does not make the translation into words at Spanish, but understands directly from the movement. It is a bodily language , so it is very relevant to mix it with dance. In a way, the language of signs is dance. Not only the body is involved, but also the hands, every finger, every gesture of the face. It is a language that is much closer to dance than any other".

Thus, this project allows "to give value to the body, to make a review, also as listeners, that many times we ignore the bodily needs. The history of language has made our bodies clumsy, with a lot of fear and shame to touch, feel and open ourselves. In this project we see this basic need of the human being".

To Siebald, Transcript #2 allows "to reflect on languages. There are times when words cloud our thoughts and this is a space to leave the mind blank, return to the origin, open the body and understand this language as something more sensitive, more of the soul, that lives in you".