The embora company was formed in 2019 by Marta Rodríguez Lázaro and Triana Martincano García, both creators and performers and graduates in visual arts and dance with a major in circus arts and contemporary dance, respectively.
Marta trained in dance at the professional conservatory of A Coruña, to later discover the circus in Madrid and begin her career as a creator, participating with her own pieces at festivals such as TAC and EUCIMA. Triana trained in different disciplines of dance, music and circus. As a performer she was part of the Madrid Chamber Ballet and currently also as a creator in the La Colé dance company.
Embora’s work is based on the search for new stage languages. They merge contemporary dance and juggling, approaching research and creation from a transdisciplinary perspective.
Photographer: ©️ Gaby Merz
First question: Who are you and what is your project about?
We are Marta and Triana, from the company Embora, our company was born when we finished university. Well, a year after finishing, in 2019, we were a year without knowing what to do with our life and we said: come on, let’s do things, let’s go ahead. Our project basically consists of combining the things that we have, which are circus and dance. And to find new languages from there. The company is made up of the two of us, and here we are, Embora against the world. We both studied at RJC University, we started with contemporary dance, then I did circus, I specialized in juggling. So now what we are doing is, as we said before, to merge those two disciplines, juggling and contemporary dance. We also introduce live music and live singing in our show.
How to describe your universe ?
Apart from abstract, abstract, contemporary, sensitive, daily, and that’s it.
What has been the most difficult ?
The biggest difficulty, among many …. I think it was the pandemic and being in different cities for a whole year, which happened just after we started the project, so it was difficult to continue with it, to persist, even if things didn’t come out… yeah.
So we were separated from March 2020 to April 2021… wow… I was in Coruña, I started coming to Madrid once a month and about a week a month, we rehearsed all week a lot of hours and… pim pam pum pum
In 2021 we showed for the first time, in August, at the Bajo teja festival.
The difficulty… I think that, being constant, betting on the project, even having a lot of difficulties and things along the way… Not falling down, pulling each other, luckily we were 2, we became one… KAPUT… But luckily we are 2, that when one is bad the other is good, so… we balance it.
What resources have helped you in your process, support?
From the beginning we have received a lot of support from all the people of Schimi volanti, PDCirco, the greenhouse, that is Samu, Eva and Carlos. In fact it all started thanks to Samu, so we owe him a lot. And thanks to him we were given our first residence with a grant, which was Circozaurre in 2019, and that’s where it all started. And then they have continued to support the project, both in terms of helping us with the management and dossier, etc. and in the artistic part of receiving feedback, etc., such as providing space, helping us to have a place to rehearse, ….. Absolutely in all aspects… showing our work, getting people to see it… Yes, the truth is that they give us a lot of support.
What would you have liked to know before creating a company?
I would have liked to know that it is very difficult. Because you are not only an artist, you have to do a lot of other things, you have to be a manager, a graphic designer, a website creator. As they say, networkers. That’s what I was thinking. All of it. Networking. You have to know how to sell yourself. You have to know, uh… know the circuits, know the people who run these things. You have to know how to be in the places where you have to be. How to present your work, how to do it, how to defend it too. They don’t teach you how to speak at university, no. Nor do they teach you how to invoice. Yes, the whole issue of budgets, … I would have liked to know, that was also that part.
How do you survive?
This company doesn’t feed us, because we like to eat a lot. With all the food we eat, it’s impossible for it to feed us haha.
But I hope it does, yes, I trust, quite a lot, yes, yes, yes … We have had, well we have had many stops, at the end, Yes, and little by little I think this is growing… But yes, to survive in the end, you have to find side jobs that support you and that pay the rent, Yes.
Anecdote
I want to share that I don’t know how Triana hasn’t killed me in any rehearsal, because every time we rehearse I get hit… Yes, the last one was that I hit you with a ball in the eye. Yes, right in the eye socket, yes and more, yeah, scratches, your shoulder, my shoulder, well that wasn’t entirely your fault.
Well thank you very much for letting us share these little things, although brief but important, and nothing a kiss, all the best.