Artistic Residency: Tocar a un hombre

Julio Ruiz has often danced alone, but now he comes together in a duet with Javier De La Asunción that explores languages of touch, sensation and feeling. This performance seeks to reaffirm the dancers’ identities through the skin of another.

The duo goes on a voyage of discovery, asking what is felt in the body when it is touched? How does skin react to other skin?

This is an intimate evening of contemporary flamenco unlike anything you have seen before.

Tocar a un hombre is a work of creation through flamenco, dance and performance, to reaffirm an identity through the skin of the other. I am in a process of research beyond any label, I am in search of a language that is as personal and organic as possible. I want to re-establish values, thoughts, sensations and feelings that until now I have not been able to question deeply, stigmas that are introduced into us without being able to select them, without being able to decide what we keep and what we don’t keep. One of the tools I turn to is self-questioning:

What does my body feel when I am touched, how does my skin react to other skin? I have always danced alone, without other skin nearby, so I find peace, decision, mastery and stability. With time I discover that I only dance for anyone who wants to look at me. Maybe now the best scenario is that another body is nearby. Many times I have asked myself if I would dance for no one and the answer is no.

What if instead of looking at me, you dance with me? Rubbing your skin by inertia. Smell your hair as you lean against my chest. Holding your weight. To look into your eyes so close that I don’t know if I’m seeing my own eyes.
 Dancing with a man. That man doesn’t have to be someone else, I can be myself.