María Victoria Castellanos, Baile

It all started at Museo de la Inquisición in Cartagena. I was sitting, listening to a meeting with Dr. Moisés Álvarez Marín who was discussing some issues around the symposium's organization with my mother. Behind his desk were two images that were really beautiful.

I asked him what they were. "Oh, it's from our next exhibition, it's called Baile (Dance) from a Cartagenian woman living abroad. He handed me a small printed flyer and the list of the works to be displayed at the Museum.

"That one over there is Champeta dancing in La Boquilla, you should tell Antonio to take you there."

Champeta en la Boquilla, María Victoria Castellanos

And so he did. La Boquilla is a fishermen's beach and we all went there Friday night looking for some traces of this dance. It is a practice usually done on weekends but it seemed we had an impossible mission in our hands, so we persisted.

I can only say that an image can take you closer to an experience but once you experience something, an image can bring you back to that exact moment. In words of María Victoria Castellanos (and probably a terrible translation to English done by yours truly):

Bodies that cling indifferent to each other: to color, to smell, to clothes just to find their souls in sensual cadence.

Knees together, delicate hands, closed eyes that await new emotions.

Feet that glide gently, trying not to scare off pleasure, an evasive guest.

Heads in mutual support to the rythm of the music and the wind.

Undulating hips that pursue an invisible pentagram that they ignore but feel.

Bodies that levitate in sensual eroticism without space or time.

Dance… silent ally, you provide joy within a body.

María Victoria Castellanos

*Thanks to Dr. Moisés Álvarez and María Victoria Castellanos for providing this material for my blog.