Calidoscòpica

Calidoscòpica is the invitation that dancer, performer, and choreographer Sonia Gómez has extended to Encarni Espallargas: a performance-based, dance and music show about an encounter between the two women and their experiences, taking into account mental health, creativity, and well-being. Intertwined themes are used to create a story that invites the audience to imagine what life would be like with productive schizophrenia.

Between 2004 and 2011, Encarni Espallargas was diagnosed with schizophrenia, with indications of a possible bipolar disorder. These conditions gradually diminished her ability to remember and, consequently, to repeat or react to certain life situations, particularly in demanding moments that require precision. As such, the performance is adapted, requiring the two performers to connect and interact based on the degree of impact. For Espallargas, the project is also a professional opportunity, drawing on the tools of creativity and performance.

Calidoscòpica explores the potential of a stigmatised mental disorder, and gives firsthand insight into it.

A dancer, performer, director, choreographer, and teacher, Sònia Gómez studied contemporary dance and choreography at the Institut del Teatre and at the P.A.R.T.S. school in Brussels.

Since 2004, she has been working on projects with the theme of the construction of identity, as well as using art to uncover social posturing and using body and performance to uncover artistic posturing.

Sònia met Encarni Espallargas during a project led by Cabosanroque at the L’Altre Festival Internacional d’Arts Escèniques i Salut Mental festival for performing arts and mental health in the spring of 2021. This led to weekly meetings that began in March 2022, during which the two women, with openness and curiosity, embarked on a personal, ironic, and empowering journey, resulting in Calidoscòpica, the piece being presented at Escena - Barcelona Districte Cultural.

Performance coordinated by Escena BDC.