Elis Valente
Tension
Pablo Panailillo · Nicolas Palma · Cristobal Espoz
BIO / Born in Argentina, Elis Valente trained as a circus artist with a primary focus on aerial acrobatics. She earned a degree as a professor of body expression-dance and complemented her training with various other movement arts. Her professional dedication revolves around aerial disciplines and scenography, which contribute to shaping her artistic language.Â
She participated as a performer in the dance group DanzAbismal, a collective of dancers dedicated to researching, experimenting, and producing performative interventions in unconventional spaces.Â
She co-founded CompañĂa Anexo23 with Meme Canziani. Together, as directors and performers, they created the piece PVC (C2H3Cl)n, which was showcased in many venues across Buenos Aires.Â
Currently, she leads her own company and is focused on the creation of Tension.Â
THE PROJECT / Tension is a contemporary circus performance intended for a young adult audience, estimated to last approximately 55 minutes. It incorporates aerial technique, aerial acrobatics, dance, and stage design.Â
It represents the fusion of Elis Valente’s obsessions with geometric structures, symmetrical spaces, plastics, chaos, and transformation. The performer manipulates 40-meter-long elastic bands with high elasticity, capable of instantly returning to their natural state.Â
It’s an intimate space where discomfort resides, a large wall of latex that divides inside from outside. Domination, submission, subjugation. Pleasure to pain and displeasure to aggression. The exposure of fragility struggling to feel secure.Â
The body is in contact with a hostile object that damages the skin, becomes skin. It could be another body, manipulating and sniffing the performer’s breath. Bodies conversing about their limits, playing with the abyss: how much pain can one endure? How much tension can we withstand? “I resist!” But at any moment, it could break.Â
