Shadowboxing - Santiago, Chile

CYM spent the better part of January in Santiago, Chile at Centro NAVE!  While at NAVE, Call Your Mom investigated our modes of making, incorporating new movement exercises, sound games, and even a day of American Idol style critiques courtesy of Sophie (who does a great Randy, in case you were curious). ​

In our previous shows and experiments in Say You’re Sorry, people’s inability or unwillingness to forgive themselves kept coming up. One reply on the Forgiveness Scale reads “would forgive someone else but can’t forgive myself.” So we decided to work on self-forgiveness and catharsis as our themes for the residency and subsequent showing, which we called Shadowboxing. The themes also felt pertinent to the kind of emotional exploration each of us wanted to do in Chile. What are our barriers to self-forgiveness? What does it feel like to carry around something you cannot forgive? When do we allow ourselves catharsis? When does that catharsis amount to meaningful internal change? ​

Shadowboxing‘s premiere consisted of interactive sculpture, sound composition, and dance. NAVE is founded on a reverence of physical experimentation, so it felt like the opportune place to create a work that mostly relied on embodied storytelling. To encourage immersion in the topic and a sense of personal buy in, Call Your Mom created a separate set of interactive prompts. The space (Sala Negra, Centro NAVE) contained two beet punching bags, the Forgiveness Scale (seen in Hard Feelings and Forgiveness Experiment), and four long cloth harnesses connecting each of us to the ceiling. Audiences entered the venue, and were asked to write something they have struggled or are struggling to forgive themselves for on a large canvas behind the second punching bag. Participants could punch, slam, or kick the bag into the canvas, creating magenta splatters. They then sat down for a 15-minute movement piece accompanied by original music and video. After the movement, audience members were asked to cut out their response from the canvas, and pin it on the Forgiveness Scale from Easily Atoned (Facil a Perdonar) to Unforgiveable (Imperdonable). 

The experience of performing Shadowboxing was exhausting and rewarding. It was a physically and emotionally daunting piece that could not be practiced or anticipated. Loading giant punching bags with beets that dye our clothing and everything around us could only happen once. We felt immense pride over the performance, and are excited about the possibilities of future renditions to come.

NAVE hosted us in a grander manner than we could have ever imagined. They provided us with a beautiful apartment, usage of incredible rehearsal spaces, and support from a talented and hilarious production team. We are so grateful for the time, space, and resources to create Shadowboxing! 
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All photographs are courtesy of our dear friend, Fernanda Ruiz.