Study 2: Silence

“The Garden of the Hesperides” is a Spanish-Moroccan project that has been developed through an exhaustive research process and through various workshops held with Moroccan and Spanish women in Casablanca and Valladolid, giving rise to the creation of this piece of dance-theater.
A show, which is a hymn to women, on a round trip between cultures and their peculiarities, and which serves to celebrate the 25 years of history of the Alicia Soto-Hojarasca company. Created in three artistic residencies, Thèâtre Ain Harrouda, Casablanca, Centro Cultural Serrada, and Teatro Calderón de Valladolid, The garden of the Hesperides It premiered on September 25 and 26, 2020 at the Calderón Theater in Valladolid with the support of the Calderón Theater in Valladolid and General Subdirectorate of International Relations and European Union, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Visages Program.

The show has earned the seal of the 5th Centenary of Magellan's First Circumnavigation of the World, for its quality and theme.

"Through a subtle fusion of myth and modernity, movement and narrative, oppression and hope, this deeply captivating work conveys a message of female emancipation and solidarity. By capturing the complexity of the female experience in all its richness, this exhibition reveals a reality in which memory, resistance, and dreams intertwine to outline the contours of a freer and more just future."

Published by Le Quotidien after the performance on March 20, 2025, at the 4ème art Theatre in Tunis, opening the Tunis Théâtres du Monde festival.

"The play offered a sensorial and contemplative experience that dazzled the audience and took them on a journey through the labyrinths of the female self, where emotions intertwine between pain and joy, between restrictions and liberation, and between oppression and resistance. With an innovative artistic vision, director Alicia Soto rewrites this story, turning the "garden" into an interior space for every woman, where she preserves her dreams and disappointments and seeks to find her path to enlightenment."

Published by Mohamed Sami on Backstage30.com after the March 20, 2025 performance at the 4ème art Theatre in Tunis, opening the Tunis Théâtres du Monde festival.

Synopsis

“The look learns by looking.
There is no way to build the gaze if it is not by exercising it: looking, observing and analyzing.
There is no way to separate the text from the image.
The text is a way of looking and the images are forms of discourse.
Writing leads to silence and the look to blindness.

(Text by Santiago Olmo, Subtraction of color, exhibition by Bernardí Roig, Instante Blanco, National Museum of Sculpture).

Premiere on May 24, 2014, in the cloister of the National Museum of Sculpture.
As an architectural space, the cloister of the National Sculpture Museum of Valladolid.

As sound, the accompaniment of the Band of Bugles and Drums "Sagrada Lanzada" from Valladolid.

The color, the white of the stone, the subtraction of color in the face of polychromy.
Silence in the face of the loud sound of the drums that rumbles from the stone and the wind, which slips through the metallic wind.
The living sculpture as if it were a human being.

And an audience, hunter of emotions, always watching.

artistic sheet

Artistic Direction and Choreography: Alicia Soto
Dancers-Performers: Julián Gómez Pavón, Alicia Soto
Musical Creation: Luis la Forga
Video and photography: Luis Antonio Barajas
Creative design: José Navarro
Communication: Virginia Grigelmo
Administration: Sofía García Fernández
Management: João Sousa Marques
Costumes: Alicia Soto – Hojarasca

Project

Regards (Looks) It is a show to encourage the gaze that moves between the playful, the poetic and the contemporary. Creating a new dramaturgy of images, of great beauty and poetry, which is divided into four acts or scenes, using contemporary dance and Break dance as artistic language, not only in an encounter but in a dialogue.

A choreographic and dramaturgical journey in which the presence of Morocco and a multicultural influence can be glimpsed, with ethnic sounds, and spiritual and electronic songs that create urban and natural landscapes.

The conception of the show starts from the duet, and Estudio 3: Miradas). The choreographer, driven to continue investigating the concept of the gaze, was inspired to create a broader program that revolved around our desires and the relationship with others from our own or someone else's perspective.

Duration 60 minutes.

Particular Creation Process between artistic residences and representations:
Created in different artistic residences, between Spain and Morocco, with the collaboration of the Cervantes Institute of Casablanca, the Patio Corsario, Valladolid, La Nave del Duende, Casar de Cáceres and the Principal Theater of Burgos.

This show culminates after a year of work and artistic relationship between Alicia Soto and Julián Gómez Pabón.

Each city has been a place of common work and search, which culminated in a presentation with the public, to share, listen and continue to encourage the look.

During 2018, it was presented in different Spanish cities, always in the process of creation.

It premieres internationally in September 2018 at the Stage Dance Festival Shanghai. China. With a great reception.

National premiere at the Teatro Principal de Burgos, April 26, 2019.

See the whole Tour

Videos of the Show

Study 2: Silence

Press reviews

TAC/ The Synod of Silence

By: Isaac Macho

…..Architecture, spectators, authorities, time and a body charged with energy, live a supernatural experience, only broken by the clicks of the cameras. The 50 musicians of the “Sagrada Familia” Bugle and Drum Band from Valladolid prepare the carpet for the great lady to offer her inspiration for a new dawn in this landscape charged with emotions.