He missed the train.
Yes, I was at a theater festival where there was room and street, I didn’t know street theater and I saw a clown, Leandre, and I was passionate about that other way of relating to people.
And she was entranced.
Yes, and I went over to thank him and we started talking and I missed the train. He came to Paris and I ended up in Barcelona living with him.
And it has been theater in the street for 25 years.
I left my country, I left dance, which was the language I knew, to do a show with Leandre and start from scratch. We performed together for a few years until we parted ways.
What does the street give you?
Everything is a fabulous school of life. You are very exposed, you have to develop inner strength so that people are with you, and when it happens it is very magical, you experience intense emotions that you can only experience on the street.
What does it teach you?
A lot of humility, each time it is different, it is a school of present, presence and authenticity. There is nothing stronger than life itself. What happens with people when you hold their hands or look into their eyes is within a theatrical framework but it is true, and this is priceless.
Is it the unexpected?
I could tell you hundreds of moments that fill my heart, little things. In Denmark, at a performance of my solo On the Walk, I invited a man from the audience to dance with me. I hadn’t seen that he had a cane. He was very lame. I did the whole scene with him, making sure he didn’t feel uncomfortable.
Delicate situation.
At first he was not amused. He seemed angry, but little by little, something opened on his face, more and more smiling. At the end of the scene he walked towards me without the help of his cane and I saw him as a prince from the way he looked at me and opened his arms.
Did you give him a hug?
Yes, while the public applauded. He told me that he had been the first dancer in a great company, but he was in a car accident: “I haven’t danced since then,” he explained, “and I just remembered who I really am. Thank you”. These moments are priceless.
Have you traveled the world with two girls?
Yes, I separated from Leandre when I was pregnant with our second daughter. But she was fine. There are very hard moments, but the important thing is the meaning you give to things, and giving the greatest possible love so that everything is fluid.
And then?
Relationships transform, but that’s life. Sometimes we are more faithful to the idea we have of a couple than to what we are really experiencing; we want to do everything very well, but life is lived and it is as it is, it is important to be lucid with this.
Did you continue traveling with your daughters?
Yes, I had a babysitter and a van with which we traveled the world. When we went on tour at school they gave us the agenda and homework, and things went well.
Until what age?
They are adults and tomorrow we are going on tour, they have also fallen in love with this world.
You are brave, you have lived the life you have chosen.
We are much more free and capable than what is instilled in us. Doors are closed to you, but other paths are drawn that force you to do things for yourself, that has prompted me to create my universe and my shows. I’m very grateful.
The theme of his shows?
The fragility. We go around the world very arrogant and we do not give the correct value to what it is to live. There is a lot of violence and contempt in the world, but I do not forget the miracle of living. We must be more aware of how lucky we are, not for having but for being.
…
I would like to know everyone’s name and fight against that anonymous plural, remind people that we are all vulnerable and that we are all in the same boat together. If we look into each other’s eyes and shake hands, the world is better.
You often speak of the vagabond.
When I was a teenager, a homeless man from Paris became my friend and I had the most beautiful philosophical talks with him. I wasn’t the only one who was going to talk to him.
He knew how to listen.
Yes, there are many lonely people, with a great lack of affection, but we extol the heroes, ignoring that life is also getting old and dying, if we were clearer about it, life would be more substantial, we would love the nuances.
That great sensitivity that you have must also have its negative side.
I welcome sadness and allow it to go hand in hand with joy, they are not incompatible. I am a hunter of smiles, encounters and pretty looks, and most of the time I feel happy and always grateful.
