Lorena Nogal's dance embraces the sunset in Peralada

Dusk falls on the Perelada winery. It's the 4th of July, but of a different variety: here there's no epic, but rather stealth to awaken the senses and bring emotions to fruition. This is what dancer and choreographer Lorena Nogal (Barcelona, ​​1984) and her partner in crime Álvaro Esteban are about to propose with this dance duo titled Terroir, a Perelada commission conceived for this site-specific setting, which is already the Suqué-Mateu family's Celler.

The punishing sun has given a respite on this second day of the festival, but it has left a sweltering heat and a threatening sky. Less than 24 hours have passed since the opening, and Peralada has already engaged its audience with the contemplation of the landscape, the connection with the earth, the manipulation of grapes, the transformation of matter, and the sensorial pleasure and celebration.

Because the eighty attendees must follow a four-scene tour: the show begins, unnervingly, on the farm's bridge, with a dance now in slow motion. It continues through the native herb garden to music that combines the Ebrense jota with Gregorian chant. From there, they advance to the tasting area, where Lorena dresses in the aesthetic she has inspired in the La Veronal company... and culminates on the roof of the winery itself, with its irrigation canal and that sudden sunset against which the silhouettes of both dancers were silhouetted. If God exists...

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These four still lifes evoke different moments in the transformation process. But each one's perspective completes them, as it is the audience that will give meaning to the proposal.

“The body is the vehicle for exploring the times and qualities of the physical. And music, drama, and visual art complement each other to offer a sensorial journey to the viewer, so that their own experience can complete the meaning of what they see,” the Barcelona-based artist noted hours before the premiere.

The different scenes each maintain a balance of flavors, textures, and emotions, evoking states in which "everyone can identify." With this homage to the land and all the people who work from the body, from the roots, the audience yesterday was getting closer to discovering just how alive and multisensory a winery is. So full of diverse landscapes...

The artists, including composer Franco Mento, have “self-distilled” to get to the essence

The artists, including the composer, Franco Mento, have "self-distilled," Nogal asserts, to reach the essence and share it with people. And to do so, they have undertaken an inner journey, through listening and, ultimately, realizing what they see before them, "that landscape full of memory." "An intimate encounter between two universes: architectural and landscape space and our own experiences."

If the world of contemporary dance is currently in vogue, it's thanks to figures like Lorena Nogal, that unstoppable artist who was so restless as a child that her mother decided to send her to dance school to channel all that energy. And not just physical energy, but also creative energy: the 2024 National Dance Award winner in the acting category began a solid career nurturing the poetic spirit of La Veronal and supporting the stellar career of Marcos Morau, the company's founder, but the seed of choreographer soon sprouted.

Nogal is part of the Col·lectiu Hotel Escènic, four colleagues from the 2005 class of the Institut del Teatre who, after decades of traveling here and there with their respective careers, wanted to establish an imaginary hotel where they could leave their luggage, their baggage, upon returning home. A scenic hotel where they could briefly inhabit the territories of artists from other disciplines.

But she also maintains a solo career that is placing her in her rightful place on the choreographic scene. With La Veronal, she was seen a few months ago at the Lliure de Gràcia, dancing Totendanz, and she will be seen at the TNC in September with that fantasy of images, gestures, and bodies with which Morau evokes La mort i la primavera , Mercè Rodoreda's most enigmatic novel (it premieres this August at the Venice Dance Biennale). But she's eager to explore new things, to work on the body in detail, with a more organic poetic approach.

In this sense, this spring he has performed on his own at the TNC's Sala Tallers twice, once with his HOTEL en Suite No. 4. Do not disturb , written and directed by actor Jordi Oriol, and another with a 20-minute creation for four dancers, which was part of the European Coreolab project.