It seemed only a matter of time that María Palma (Barcelona, 37 years old) carried her love and love for water to the stage. As a child I dreamed of experiencing what it would be like to live a time submerged and endure breathing, “really dreaming of it, one night while sleeping,” he says by videoconference. Because in the water a good part of his life has spent. First, with swimming classes at school. Then, between the age of 10 and 16, practicing synchronized swimming at the sports club in her neighborhood (“My mother taught me a VHS tape where a group of swimmers was seen and said ‘Do you like it?’ I said yes”). Now, on stage with the show The submerged voicewhich will be seen this weekend in the theaters of the Canal, within the first risk edition, Circus Festival organized by the Community of Madrid.
But how do you pass from sport to the scenic? “I already chosen the artistic baccalaureate. I was interested in music and photography, but also sport and I graduated in physical activity sciences. I met people who made acrobatics and I discovered the circus, a discipline that combines the physical and the artistic. And I told myself: Ah! Well, it can be done. ”
Released in 2023, this show contains several “first times.” For example, it is its first solo creation after founding the Madame Gaüc collective in Rotterdam, a city where it was formed in circus arts in addition to Barcelona. It is also the first time that the creator takes the water to the stage. Five thousand liters in a tank (to which she refers as “fishbowl”) of a meter and a half on each side by 20 meters high. In addition, there are a couple of centimeters of water on the ground, covering the linoleum with the edges raised.
To all this this weekend is added a novelty that has to do with her own vital state: María Palma is pregnant three and a half months and this Saturday will be the first time that she represents this work in her state. “I really want to see how I feel. It will be a kind of pregnancy within a pregnancy, ”he says. How to swim in amniotic fluid? “That is. I had been thinking about having a child for a while, so thinking about the water tank for the show also allowed me to continue creating and acting, even if I became pregnant. ” And is there any type of risk? “No. At no time did the apnea force. My record in endure under water is in 4 minutes and 20 seconds. At rest and without moving. In the show I am only 1 submerged minute, which from outside the scene can be a lot, but it is not. There are people who say that at that time it is wrong, seeing me, that it is overwhelmed, but for me it is a state of peace and relaxation, ”he explains. He also adds that in any case there is an action protocol, “very simple”, in case something happens. “I am not in danger at any time. It is not the circus that interests me. ”
The fishbowl as a shelter: the work is about the identity and emotional journey of a woman who sometimes needs to isolate himself to meet again. “It is a safe space for introspection and transformation,” he says. He explains that after a while with his company and as a collaborator of others (he was part of the cast of the successful assembly Extreme bodyby Rachid Ouramdane, seen in Spain in 2023 in the theaters of the Canal and the Mercat de Les Flors), he needed to start a solo project different from everything he had done before. “The desire that water was present in creation was quite immediate. Because when I wondered what I can contribute, where I can talk and what I want to tell, it came to me naturally. Nor is it easy or usual to bring water to the scene. ”
The uniqueness of this feat began with the search for someone to manufacture a tank of those dimensions and to support the five thousand liters of water, but also its own movement within it and, in another sense, the theater displacements in theater. As for water, it is a local company in each city or community that is responsible for filling the tank and then pick it up to reuse it. “Nothing is thrown. Anyway, although five thousand liters of water sound very strong, they are the ones needed to build the battery of a computer, ”he details. “I have learned a lot about the ‘invisible water’ with this piece. Everyone that is used without us noticing. ”
The submerged voice It will be seen within the framework of a new festival of the Community of Madrid, which is called risk, dedicated to contemporary circus and in which the “even more difficult” does not see the creation. It emphasizes, instead, in the shows that arise, a dramaturgy more in line with the scenic and the mixture of disciplines. “It’s about generating sensory experiences at all levels that connect with the public beyond pure entertainment,” says the artist.
In this sense, the live music of Lluís Casahuga, which is collecting the sounds emitted Manoly Rubio collaborates in the enrichment of assembly as a scenic place and for experimentation. “Breathing under water is like flying. In the end, it is a body in suspension, ”he concludes.