DANIELA ANAYA AMAYA
Dancer - Performing Artist
Neva Anne Kenny
Dancer, choreographer, teacher.
Director of the performing arts career. Pontifical Javeriana University
In this evaluation of the Professor for the student Daniela Anaya, I use as references the Artist Statement and the Self-Assessment of the student, plus the profile of the graduate of the Performing Arts Career of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. I begin by contextualizing the relationship I have had with Daniela, who started her first semester classes in 2015. I had Daniela in the classes of Principles of Dance I 2015, Principles of Dance II 2016, and Basic Technique Contemporary Dance 2019-01 , twice Laboratory of Choreographic Composition 2018-03 and 2019-01 in the Professional Cycle. I will talk about the strengths, difficulties and transformations of the student from my perspective as her teacher, mainly regarding her process with the body in dance.
If I could take a picture of Daniela again in our first meeting, it would be of a person with good conditions for movement. He had good coordination, a lot of flexibility, and a good choreographic memory. But with habits acquired from his previous dance training that were not helping him to free his body and find a movement that was both organic and authentic. He demonstrated an alignment that was not favoring efficiency in his movement and a habit of locking his knees. The placement of the pelvis had its center space blocked with the compressed weight. These were the challenges that Daniela had to face this first year.
From the first meeting with Daniela, I could witness her curiosity and discipline for learning, plus a willingness to help others. One of Daniela's strengths is her maturity and ability to analyze what is happening to her and then make coherent decisions regarding the change she seeks. At the beginning, Daniela had to rediscover her body under new parameters and gazes, but it is precisely that new gaze that has allowed her enormous growth, not only in her technical proposal, but also in the way she observes dance and creation. .
In reflecting on her self-evaluation, Daniela shares the following:
"I thought I knew everything, and during the first year of my degree I had to adapt to the idea of not knowing anything. That is, I had to assume a new possibility in my life that implied that nothing was final, that all knowledge was questionable, manipulable and transformable. What I "knew" had to be reviewed in a new context, the patterns I had acquired over the last 20 years became conscious and I could no longer even walk without at least questioning where my knees were. Certainly, I wanted to dance, but at that moment I could no longer answer the “simple” question: What is dance? How could I dedicate myself to dancing if I did not even know what it was? Facing the basic cycle consisted of learning to receive and to leave to go."
In the first year of the Career, the Basic Cycle, Daniela managed to capture one of the great axes of the Career, the Somatic, the discovery of the self, the relationship of one with the other put in an X context. This is not just a learning for the performing artist but for life in general, since we consider that these questions, consciences and discoveries are what lead to the transformation not only of the person but also of their environment. That did not happen without going through difficult times. He had a very strong ankle injury that forced him to be part of the class from the observation. For a person so fond of the movement, it was not easy at all, but it turned out to be decisive in his vision of the movement and his vocation in the artistic endeavor, beginning by wondering why he was injured.
In his Artist Statement he shares the following:
"I believe that remembering that we are first of all physical beings will allow us to have a relationship with others and with ourselves based on respect for difference and the value of plurality. We are beings in movement and that constant change motivates me to continue composing. and transforming my place on the scene. "
I want to mention that Daniela has taught me many things and has made me question many prejudices that I carried since my dance training in the US. Daniela is a very beautiful, large and voluptuous woman, something that for many educated in the world of dance are not typical characteristics in classical and contemporary dance. What I have observed in the four years that Daniela has been with us is that each semester she has conquered complex technical challenges that many of her colleagues have not been able to assimilate with the same strength. Her handling of the floor, jumping and turning have a speed and lightness typically seen in small and thin dancers, but she not only handles them but with the volume of her body makes them even more noticeable and impressive.
Observing Daniela in her discoveries of the body, her capacities, difficulties, interests and challenges, I was also able to observe her vocation to share her learning with others. His development of self-observation has allowed him to increase his ability to provide feedback to his peers and in this I find his vocation for pedagogy.
In the student's self-assessment she mentions the following:
"The somatics area was my favorite during the basic cycle, each class was a discovery and that's where my interest in training and learning methodologies was born. From that moment on I have always been accompanied by a profound question about the transmission and reception of information, from and through the body. In the area of dance I became interested in pedagogy. I saw my difficulties to get rid of patterns that I had acquired due to the lack of pedagogical experience of my previous teachers, and the problems of many of my classmates to build the connections necessary for each technique. Thus, the need to analyze and investigate around those strategies, methods and techniques to teach dance was awakened. During the rest of the career I have been able to approach many forms of transmission, select those that are more useful and efficient for me, and put into practice in myself and in my colleagues those that have given me the best results. "
Daniela's other great concern is about composition, and in the two laboratories that I have shared with her, I have seen how she has created her own language and way of approaching the creative process. The two subjects were one year apart, during which I was able to witness Daniela's continuous research on the place of creation in her artistic endeavor.
He shares the following in his Artist Statement that for me summarizes his career process here in La Javeriana:
" Move, move, move, move, move.
What is dance? Movement and nothing else, breathing, the queue for the bus, the cycles of the city, the rituals of the Friday party, the quiet of Sunday. There is no life without movement and there is no movement without energy that is recycled over and over again. That is dance, my energy releasing and returning in constant cycles. I find in movement the most honest form of communication, the truth of the desires and needs of the body. A body as a means, but also as a cause and as a consequence. It is from the recognition of the body as a builder of knowledge and meaning that I can understand the world, my world. "
In the following chart I compare the profile of the graduate of the Master in Performing Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and how I see Daniela.
Features of the profile of the Javerian performing artist
DANIELA ANAYA AMAYA GRADING PROFILE RELATIONSHIP
Concept
Awareness of the relationship between artistic practices, behavior and culture, and of individual and collective responsibility in their preservation, configuration and transformation.
It is one of the great strengths of his profile that is demonstrated in the relationship he makes of the broad field of the performing arts and his vision of inclusion of all those involved in the creative process, always respecting the idea of constant co-creation.
Technical dexterity and conceptual clarity that allow you to create in various ways from bodily action.
There is technical prowess especially in his role as a performer. I consider that he stands out in the role of creative source because I have seen, in light of his work, that he has great clarity on how to create from bodily action, which has been his big question during the career.
Ability to recognize and integrate in the processes of expression, formation and creation, the bodily, emotional, rational and spiritual dimensions of being from the somatic vision of experience.
Clarity about the importance of reflective awareness in determining and formulating creative processes and training activities that will have an impact on oneself, on others or on the environment.
I consider this to be one of the most important achievements that Daniela has acquired in her career training.
I think the student has done a great job in this environment more than anything on herself. This has allowed you to share with the other. I consider that he has shown great capacities for pedagogy, leadership and choreography.
In conclusion, Daniela finishes her process here at La Javeriana with all the tools, concerns and suitable skills to continue her training as a performer, choreographer and pedagogue. I am part of doing just that in Israel, I wish you much success and I trust that you will be a great ambassador not only for this program but for this country. Good luck Daniela, we will miss you.