{"id":548,"date":"2024-11-12T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/?p=548"},"modified":"2024-11-15T15:29:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T15:29:25","slug":"choreographer-damien-jalet-on-how-netflixs-emilia-perez-uses-dance-as-a-tool-for-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/12\/choreographer-damien-jalet-on-how-netflixs-emilia-perez-uses-dance-as-a-tool-for-resistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Choreographer Damien Jalet on How Netflix\u2019s Emilia P\u00e9rez Uses Dance as a \u201cTool for Resistance\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the surface, Netflix\u2019s new film Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em><\/a> doesn\u2019t sound like a natural fit for dance: The plot follows a violent drug cartel leader in Mexico who hires a lawyer to help plan a faux death in order to start a new life as a woman. Yet Damien Jalet<\/a>\u2019s choreography plays a major role in revealing the characters and the brutal world they live in. Here, ahead of the film\u2019s November 13 release on Netflix, Jalet discusses how he collaborated with cast members, including Zoe Salda\u00f1a<\/a> and Selena Gomez<\/a>, to create movement that \u201craises the heartbeat of the film,\u201d as he puts it.<\/p>\n

How did you get involved with Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em>?<\/strong>
I was in Mexico, actually, and had just got news that one of my tours was canceled because of a COVID wave. I was completely upset and told my partner it would be amazing timing for a cinema project. Less than 24 hours later, I got a call from director Jacques Audiard\u2019s assistant. So there was a kind of a crazy alignment and evidence that it was meant to be. Yet the evidence quickly disappeared when I read the script\u2014there was no real musical moment where they could dance. We had to invent it. And we had to find a dance language that would be right for this film, this reality, this context of violence.<\/p>\n

Did you have any particular movement inspirations?<\/strong>
In Mexico, you have a lot of street performers at traffic lights, and they have, like, 50 seconds to do their act and then to collect the money. So it\u2019s entertaining, it\u2019s uplifting. But underneath, there\u2019s a real survivor energy, and a real sense of urgency. That\u2019s something that I really wanted to inject in the film.<\/p>\n

How did you integrate dance into this story in a way that felt authentic?<\/strong>
It\u2019s only when I got to know the cast that it came together. Because, obviously, dance can be a help, but it can also be an incredible obstacle for the actors. There is something about the visceral engagement you have when you dance\u2014it can\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n

For example, with Karla Sof\u00eda Gasc\u00f3n<\/a>, I think with her, a choreographic score would get in the way of her acting. A lot of the work we did with her was much more postural and about her physical transformation from [the cartel boss] Manitas to Emilia.<\/p>\n

Then with Zoe, her way to be convincing is to get physical. Actually, there\u2019s a gala scene that was not initially supposed to be truly a dance scene. It\u2019s only when I understood how far Zoe could go that I stopped everybody during one meeting and I said, \u201cListen, I\u2019d love to try something with her. Can you guys actually change the music?\u201d<\/p>\n

And Selena had a physical viscerality too\u2014she would take movement really seriously, and really, really try to polish everything to make it as close as possible to how I envisioned it.<\/p>\n

\"Salda\u00f1a\u2014wearing
Zoe Salda\u00f1a as Rita in Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/i>. Photo Shanna Besson\/Path\u00e9.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With both Salda\u00f1a and Gomez\u2019s characters, dance functions as a way of releasing pent-up rage.<\/strong>
Dance is used as a tool for resistance a lot in this film\u2014a little bit like a weapon. In the gala scene, Zoe\u2019s like a blade. She\u2019s cutting heads with her gestures. With Selena\u2019s character, there was really this cathartic sense of \u201cWhat do I do with this anger? I\u2019m going to dance it, and let it explode.\u201d And it felt right for Selena, who is often presented as a polite, gentle girl, but she totally has that badass headbanging anger also in her.<\/p>\n

How have people reacted to the film so far?<\/strong>
The film is getting so many accolades and now is a contender for the Oscars. But there\u2019s very little recognition<\/a> for dancing in cinema. I\u2019ve been watching a lot of films recently, and I see how much choreographers contribute. Dance is doing so much right now. We need to do more to fight for acknowledgment.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The post Choreographer Damien Jalet on How Netflix\u2019s <i>Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/i> Uses Dance as a \u201cTool for Resistance\u201d<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the surface, Netflix\u2019s new film Emilia P\u00e9rez doesn\u2019t sound like a natural fit for dance: The plot follows a violent drug<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}