XIBALBÁ REVIEW by Fabián Escalona

"...Amazing and Spine-chilling" www.sangria.cl August 23rd, 2012.- The Butoh, stage expression that flirts with theatre and dance, its origins are based on the consequences of the nuclear bombs dropped over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagaski by the American air force at the end of the Second World War, where the terror and the pain reached a point that the human race didn’t know. The Butoh rises from that pain and terror, but not to illustrate an overwhelming feeling through the body movement, but to let the pain talk through the body. The difference can be subtle but it’s essential when we talk about Xibalbá, Ruta de la Memoria company’s second play. It’s about a butoh theatre play, which stages Natalia Cuéllar and Aníbal Sandoval. According to the Mayan sacred book, the Popol Vuh, Xibalbá is the Reign of the dead located in the underworld and “at the same time, it’s an inner dimension that takes the human being to other states of conscience at the moment of his or her descent”, the company explains. That way, what we saw on stage, is the journey of a maiden into death, the spine-chilling sacrificial transition, and in it, she doesn’t only renunciate to this world, but she passes through the threshold of understanding. The honor to be chosen, the terror to death and the pain for the things she won’t do, are different stages which will determine the course of this virgin maiden. The thin line between trying to narrate through the body and letting the body speaks about its own pain, is what Natalia Cuellar’s interpretation is able to show: the butoh makes possible to the member of the audience to see the inner journey of this woman. Her movements don’t speak, but show. A body that deforms and tears, that goes beyond before rushing into death. And that, as a member of the audience, was amazing and spine-chilling, because I didn’t see just a woman dying, I saw the fear, the euphoria and the pain inside me, those that the maiden was feeling in this ritual, in which I was part of it. Data: Director and performer: Natalia Cuéllar. Special participation: Aníbal Sandoval Lightning: Raimundo Estay Production: Leonel Cornejo Rojas