La Ribot

In 1993, Spanish choreographer La Ribot launched her “piezas distinguidas” (distinguished pieces) project. This project marked not only a profound break with conventional contemporary dance but also the realization of a new impulse in dance creation. La Ribot has worked on her “piezas distinguidas” for more than twelve years, creating 34 pieces, four different life shows (“13 piezas distinguidas”, 1993; “mas distinguidas,” 1997; “Still Distinguished,” 2000; and “Panoramix,” 2003) and one video installation (“Despliegue,” 2001).

In its beginnings, the project was thought to be a linear accumulation of pieces (30 seconds to 7 minute-long independent actions). But soon, the apparent linearity was transformed into an exploration of memory. What in 1997 was a subtle suggestion became a clear revelation in 2000: each piece was not in fact “new” on presentation as each was made up of an artful series of quotations from previous pieces. The audience was denied the linear consumption of novelties and shifted to a space of (almost) private remembering. This radical change was accompanied by an intense architectural experiment. After discarding the traditional black box, where the audience ...