My name is Pau Aran Gimeno  

I dance, I teach, I lead projects and I choreograph… Yes, that’s what I do, I practice Dance. 

I am now in Berlin for one week.

My pathway from study into the professional field of dance happened between the ages of 18 and 24 and was a peculiar transition for me.  

As  for many of us, being a student  offered me the possibility to research and see several styles, techniques, methods, companies, dance groups, artists, performances, you name it… While going to the theater, I began to imagine myself not only as a(n )spectator/student but also on stage within the piece I was observing. At the same time, there was still a need for further education. I began to focus on that education by taking classes in private studios, as an independent student mostly and later, by joining two big institutions in Spain and Germany. In between, some job offers came, but I was focused on the importance of education in dance. At some point, I suppose you can feel when it is time, one very particular audition occurred in Germany near the University where I was supposed to stay for two years (the two last courses of a 4 year BA in Dance was offered to me as an option). It was 2005 and classes had already began for one week. I remember my oldest sister telling me: ‘You don’t have anything to lose, but everything to win’. I tried my luck in the audition, even though I knew, I was meant to be at the University for two years, anyway. I went there. After two months and two rounds of audition, I got invited to join that company. That company was and is one of the places I felt motivated and passionate about. So, it was a very special thing. I don’t think I then stopped studying. Studying gained another dimension and became something else. So I could say I then accomplished and continued my ‘two years BA at the University’ within the company, under more practical and working circumstances. That was a lovely schooling at the beginning. And still is. 

A bit of my journey that’s not mentioned in my bio could be the fact that I have been always surrounded by dancers, students and colleagues of several ages and diverse background. As a ballroom dancer since age 11, I shared my dance experiences with 50/60 years old men and women for many years. Then, when I decided to transition into academic dance, I first had to join basic dance programs, where I would find myself amongst 12/13 years old kids. I was already 22, wearing tights and ballet shoes at the conservatory. No more Waltz and Rumba! LoL  

It was an intense journey to unlearn, rediscover movement, breath, the use of muscles in a new manner, understanding another way of dancing. I didn’t have an easy body when I began my dance transition from ballroom to contemporary dance. I was not and I have never been, the type of dancer ‘they were looking for’. So, it was also not an easy journey when it came to Change. But not necessarily only physically speaking. In my case, the phases, cycles, transitional periods have been long and have brought me into conflict with my own ego. In order to understand when I needed/need to create a change, communicate it and find an ending especially when everyone and everything around you tells you, ‘continue as you are and keep on doing the same thing’) I have/had to work/research on the idea of  patience and humility. On top of it, if your responsibilities are bigger than at the beginning of that journey and you’ve created a whole network, professionally and personally, it calls for a certain amount of determination but also care, mostly with yourself, to break the codes and reinvent yourself. I have done this several times in my carrier. As for me, there is only one only one way out: Change, constantly… 

My advice for my graduating self would be… ‘Keep on educating yourself, but not only in institutions. Go into independent/underground art/dance spheres and meet people.’ 

My advice to a graduate now?… ‘Keep on working and take care of your own transition, by meeting other artists and human beings, also beyond dance. Take good care of your personal and emotional landscape (family, friends, love!). Also take good care of your body and processes. Be generous. Be a channel’.  

One hope for the future of dance that could come out of 2020 would be/it is to stay as human as possible. Connected to our animal, mammal aspect. Heartbeat. To keep our humanity and spirituality is of upmost importance after all is going on. Staying tangible and somatic, among data and bytes.   

Poetic Resistance - Poetic Urge - Resilience 

Thank you!!!