Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Zambrano.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Performing arts has always been of great interest to me. I began my journey at age 8 in a musical theatre summer camp called “Showcamp.” This entry to the stage made me realize how crucial performing was to my life. Throughout learning about theatre, I resisted taking dance technically and enjoyed the artistry of performing, improv and choreographing more. I eventually was accepted into the dance program at the California Institute of the Arts, where training and thinking merged, and I finally began taking my dance training seriously.
During my time at CalArts, I studied under amazing faculty, teaching a variety of styles, in turn, branching my interests into performance art, dance film, acting and directing. I was also given the opportunity to study at the Korean National University of the Arts in Seoul and the Centre national de la danse in Paris. While overseas, I presented work at the Korean National Choreography Festival in Seoul and the Henny Jurriëns Solo Concert in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The opportunities overseas have affected me immensely as an artist, providing me with insight on different approaches to viewing and making work.
Now, after receiving my BFA in dance and choreography, I currently reside in Los Angeles and dance for multiple Los Angeles based companies. My post-grad life has been influenced greatly by a few mentors for whom I’m incredibly grateful. Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly, WeWolf (Rauf Yasit and James Gregg) and Bret Easterling have helped me in so many ways. Each of them has influenced the ways I approach movement practices as well as how I am defining myself as an artist.
Please tell us about your art.
Dance is my outlet of expression, more specifically dance theatre or dance film. I believe that dance is the most visceral practice in which people can connect, in result bringing us to our primal roots. Within my work, I play immensely with narrative, myth and magic realism. As humans, we connect with storytelling. Utilizing this, I am interested in exploring bonds between people and how bonds are shaped or broken under the immense pressure of the human condition. More specifically, bonds between queer individuals. As a mixed Hispanic and white, gay, cis identifying male, I find myself bordering identities on both sexual and cultural levels. This border theory influences how I perceive the world, as well as myself in space, my personal as political.
That being a creator who is homosexual, my work innately will speak upon or have a queer aroma infused in it. That my body, as well as others, contains lineage and history which influences one’s presence on the stage. Transferring the personal as political into my work, I tend to play with magic realism to redefine what it means to be queer in a society. I don’t overtly express the intention for queerness, but allow it to thrive, regenerate, become deceased, live as one does within the “norms” of society. I feel doing this allows the audience to partake as an observer while empathizing with the “other.” Much like an animal in a zoo, the audience peers behind the glass while the animal watches back. Both are aware of each other’s presence and environments, neither interacting but partaking in a seen and be seen situation. Whether the other is that of queerness, grotesque or abstraction, the container of the performance allows for these identities to thrive without explanation or influence of the outside world.
I have currently been working with a singular concept for my work over the past couple of years. Creating and producing four pieces under this entity, “Red Curtain” is a possible life’s work that is still being analyzed and investigated deeply. It derives from the concept of ego and how ego has shaped culture, people in power and choices made in history. I question, can one surpass ego into humility and is one who is extremely humble live within ego? This analysis has developed into the shaping of a world which lives on the stage through the theatre.
That as a spectator, you are witnessing extreme ego as well as extreme humility. That the performer is revealing as much as they are concealing, possibly for their satisfaction. The investigation has led me to analyze the cultural identities of the ballerino Vaslav Nijinksy, rockstar Freddie Mercury and the first celebrity Jesus Christ. The theatre has always been my home. I am interested in exploring how the theatre has housed many others as a people, culture and performative ego; in turn, investigating what is left behind by those who pass along the stage.
We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
I find loneliness to be of two possibilities, great inspiration or great anxiety. It’s knowing how to tune this feeling of loneliness to help rather than be an emotional detriment. A majority of times I feel alone when in crowd of people. I feel that I am stuck with my thoughts while others mingle/move around me. I use practices to remove myself of this problem.
One is to embrace it. Allowing myself to be an observer in crowd gives me great joy, as I get to receive glimpses of people’s character, expressions, dress, cultural heritage, etc. It transforms a battle within myself into a positive scenario and possible creative inspiration. In contrast, I choose to work through the feeling and realize we all are lonely beings who crave communication. I am one of many with difficulty speaking to others. With this in mind, I would rather go home learning and growing from an interaction I made, rather than regretting the latter. A majority of my collaborations or opportunities have come from a conversation over coffee, at a party or from deciding to take the first step via email/in person. Artists don’t need to be the “tortured artist” to be brilliant. Allow yourself to enjoy the everyday.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
As of now, I am focused mainly on myself as a performer and from there will be applying what I have learned as a performer into choreographic work. However, to keep up to date with what I am doing as an artist, you can follow my Instagram @kevin_zam or explore my website, kevinzambranodance.com, to see excerpts of my work, experiments, and future projects.
Contact Info:
- Website: kevinzambranodance.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @kevin_zam
Image Credit:
Taner Tumkaya, Daniel Nicolaevsky, Sasha Douglas, Carlos Murillo, Steve Gunther, Oliver Sandino
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