​JOHN HENRY GERENA
DANCE ARTIST
CHOREOGRAPHER
During the years that he has traveled in the dance world, has steadily pursued the recognition of features that identify his own work as a choreographer, for this moment and after having spent the last years researching this question he has found that all indications -aesthetic, choreographic, dramaturgical which have led him to understand that much of his work can be located in what might be called "Dance Installation".
His training as a scenic artist and as a graphic designer and publicist give him tools that allow him to take the image as a core in creation. The understanding and consideration of the image is the beginning and engine of his work.
He usually works in collaboration with artists from other disciplines and dancers from other genres who can contribute to the dialogue to allow his dance proposal can pursue new frontiers. He has been working on the merger between contemporary dance, performance, and theater, through a concrete dramaturgy where the intentions of the performers build a clear physical and emotional universe, making the movement a theatric demonstration of their wishes.
Some of most representative works: (Click on title to watch the video).
A piece that allows John Gerena to capture his origins, the present and the influence of his Latin American antecedents in the face of modern colonialism.
A solo that embraces his existence, his gestures, his physicality, his presence. The sensitive, living, vibrant imprint of his journey as a performer, choreographer and human being. The reminiscences of his intimate peregrinations, perpetual transformations, that resonate on stage as in a soliloquy of body and soul that explores bodily anecdotes, migrations, territories.
Exploration of movement, color, video, and sound, a work in progress that has enabled the artist to push the boundaries of their discipline. This piece was developed with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Rouyn-Noranda 2023. www.calq.gouv.qc.ca
What means to be an immigrant? What means to be a foreigner in a strange land?
"The Stranger" is a piece of contemporary dance that aims to collect the accumulation of sensations and emotions that immigrants face, regardless of the origins or reasons for migration. It is not a critical view of the migratory crisis, but a look inside the individual; his loneliness, his nostalgia, anxiety, and expectation, displacement and relocation. Bodies, spaces, and relationships, loss, reward, emptiness, agitation and disorientation, imbalance, questioning, and dispossession. (2018)
The resulting piece from the choreographic residence in San Sebastian - Spanish Basque Country. With the support of the Council of Arts and Letters of Quebec, Dantzaz, Tabakalera and The Canada Council for the Arts.
Through the bolero, son and tango, "Lagrimas Negras – Black tears" evoke the romantic universe of the couple, men, and women who love and hate; passion stories, forgetfulness, and seduction.
"Lagrimas Negras – Black tears” is a contemporary dance piece that summarizes the idiosyncrasy of the Latin American people about love, passion, and couple relationships.
This dance piece integrates different Latin American rhythms like salsa, tango, and bolero with the dramaturgy and aesthetics of contemporary dance. (2016)
​
FETISH: Work in progress by John Gerena with the sound design by Edgardo Moreno, video design by Peter Riddihough and staging by Sector N Collective.
Work that is part dance performance, part art installation, part immersive sound collage. Fetish is a meditation on the relationship between the body and the rituals and gestures that inform acts of spiritual devotion.
​
Research supported by Ontario Arts Council, 2016
“BERMEJO”: War and violence are present in everyday world´s life but despite the desperation, suffering and hopelessness; people still dancing and enjoying life, Bermejo is an abstraction of that. The blood that drenches the earth and the colour of violence nuanced by the will of the people of being happy; the fight for life continues.
It Is a reflection of anger and war in Colombia, the blood that stains the land in contrast with the hope and desire to get ahead that characterized our people.
A beautiful country divided between the people that want to destroy and mistreat and the people that remain strong despite the adversity. (2013)
Something About Me: is an autobiographical work that expressed some important moments in his life; moments that he associates with black and white and what these opposite colours can mean in the aesthetic of his work. This solo began with a reflection on the possible states of a man facing the inevitability of the future. In presenting this subjective world, his artistic aim was to touch upon how such complexity is experienced by every individual, within the context of the uncertainty of modern society. (2012)
The trap is based on the idea of how destiny influences our lives, no matter of what you do, and always everything we do will be part of our destiny.
Contemporary dance work, that can be performed indoors and also allow actions to be performed in open spaces, lasting approximately 50 min.
"The path you choose will lead you to it" (2010)
​​In solitude, Melancholy is our most assiduous companion. "Melancholia" originates from reflection about the loneliness that accompanies the modern man and from the language of contemporary dance makes a look at the loneliness, that state to which we are destined potentially. We move in shoals of individuals, immersed in personalized little worlds, we passed each other but we never found it. (2009)
Project directed by Funarte and the Secretary of Culture of the State of Ceará - Brazil, "Outras Danças: Brazil, Chile, Colombia" is a project that consisted of a set of artistic, academic and educational activities during the second half of 2011. For the residences gathered together 26 Brazilian artists to make a research exercise and for creating works for soloists and duets.The residences were directed by the choreographers John Henry Gerena (Colombia) and José Luis Vidal (Chile). Each choreographer developed a job for 30 days, with a group of thirteen members, selected through a democratic process. The dancers selected developed a creative process to the hand of guest choreographers, creating a choreography in solo or duo, which was presented in the "Solos and Duos" festival. (2011)
Video Dance project based in blue colour, developed with the support of hip-hop dancers, filmed in Bogota in 2013.
With the special participation of Camilo Dias.