Son[i]a #327 La Ribot

To explain the vertiginous unfolding of her career, which combines relentless persistence with an extraordinary appetite for transformation and dérive, La Ribot uses the metaphor of a piece of cardboard that appears in one of her early Distinguished Pieces: an element that grows, expands, and envelops her body of work. Not without reason, La Ribot describes herself as a paradox, and sometimes states two opposing ideas in the same sentence. This ambivalence does not reflect a lack of consistency but a refinement of spirit in accounting for the complexity of the real, which is often beyond the scope of language. As Agamben says, paradox conceals pure potentiality, which is precisely where La Ribot’s practice can be situated: a piece of cardboard, which allows for everything.

We talk to dancer, choreographer, and visual artist La Ribot about key moments in her childhood, the collective creation and delirium of Bocanada Danza, Festival Desviaciones, the UVI group and the subsequent financial and emotional crisis that drove her from London in the nineties, and her encounter with the performing arts boom. She talks to us from the breathing room she has gained with her new centre for dance and teaching in Switzerland. In the midst of comings and goings, we discover moments that allow us to flesh out and strip back the diva, from her childhood wish to be a gypsy and the lasting impression of a little girl’s fascination on seeing a bullfight on TV, to her found object fetishes, the camera-operator, and a (perhaps dreamt) falling out with Joan Brossa.