Life Strings - Dance Film for Gypsy Maker 5 Residency

LifeStrings
Director and Choreographer: Rosa Cisneros from RosaSenCis Film Productions
Dancers: Rosa Cisneros, Leyla and Yasemin Cisneros-Sengun
Filmed and edited: Maria Polodeanu from Reel Master Productions
Music: Hania Rani & Dobrawa Czocher - Śmierć na pięć [Republika]
Flamenco is born from the Spanish Roma community and traditional work often includes a singer, guitar player and dancer. LifeStrings is a screendance film that investigates climate justice, violins and motherhood using a contemporary flamenco dance vocabulary. Reflecting on traditional Flamenco dance rhythms, techniques, gestures and modes of transmission, the work asks questions about what we copy and imitate and what we disrupt and let go of in terms of traditions. The film is using a choreographic lens to navigate cultural and generational trauma while also relying on the dancing body to reveal embodied histories and practices. Romani Violin playing by the Lautari musicians have a great tradition of violin playing, with virtuosos frequently embroidering their music with extreme amounts of ornamentation. Within Flamenco, the violin is often used to replace the singer and becomes the voice within an accompaniment. LifeStrings examines this notion of voice and disrupting traditions while drawing on Roman Krznaric’s thinking of the “the good ancestor”. Reflecting on The Vaia, a violent storm that tore through the historic Val di Fiemme forest (Italy) in late 2018 and left a trail of devastation, LifeStrings is dedicated to intergenerational justice and long-term thinking. The Vaia storm in 2018, a great atmospheric depression with strong winds, turned Stradivari's forest into a landscape of destruction. Vaia had a dramatic impact in the whole area of the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It caused almost $3.5 billion worth of damage and knocked down entire forests, destroying 8.5 million cubic meters of wood.
LifeStrings asks….What kind of ancestor do you want to be?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This work was commissioned by The Romani Cultural and Arts Company who recieved a funding award from the Arts Council of Wales to continue the trailblazing Gypsy Maker project in Wales.
‘Gypsy Maker 5’ is a development of the highly successful ‘Gypsy Maker’ project and commissions Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) artists to produce new work to add to the growing bank of Gypsy, Roma & Traveller art, knowledge and culture in Wales and beyond.