Who we are
Colectivo Priekopník Veverička (in Slovak: Pioneer Squirrels) was born in 2015 with the Slovak Lívia Balážová MM and the Costa Rican Zebastián Méndez Marín as founding members, and as a result of an inescapable artistic connection that began in Ultima Vez, a mythical company directed by Wim Vandekybus, where they met as interpreters of the remake of What the body does not remember.
We build artistic processes based on games as a creative engine to break stereotypical visions of performers and spectators in the scenic act, pushing the limits of creation, leaving aside academic labels and placing empathy, respect and consensus as conditioning factors for the celebration of the beauty in diversity.
Lívia Balážová MM
Artist born in Želiezovce, Slovakia.
Her professional training includes academies such as the J.L. Bellu at Banska Bystrica in Slovakia, the SEAD Salzburg experimental dance academy in Austria, P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, Belgium. She has worked with the Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta, with the French company Kubilai Khan, and in November 2012 she joined the renowned company Última Vez in Brussels.
In November 2015 she founded the performing arts company Colectivo Priekopník Veverička resulting in several performances (#whateveristrendingnow, PRACH/ POLVO, La Plancha) and collaborations around the world such as the co-creation with Slovak artistic collective MimoOs (DoDna, Millennial Magic Mirror) also with Honey and dust Company (EU.GENUS) and with Divadlo Štúdio Tanca (Čin).
Also has shared her movement practice workshops Mindcross and Multipartnering-Infinite Synapses together with Zebastián in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Chile, Nicaragua, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Portugal, New York, Belgium, Germany.
Artist born in San José, Costa Rica.
Zebastián Méndez Marín
He began his career in theater at an early age thanks to the support of his father, the Costa Rican playwright and actor Melvin Méndez Chinchilla. In 2009 he entered the Conservatory El Barco, a prestigious Costa Rican school of contemporary dance and performing arts, to expand his scenic possibilities.
Since graduation in 2009, he has been an active creator and dancer with his own group (Colectivo Priekopník Veverička) and other companies in Costa Rica (Jimmy Ortiz, Las Hijas de Otro), Guatemala (Centro de Investigación y Creación de Danzas en la Universidad Rafael Landívar), Belgium (Ultima Vez / Wim Vandekybus), and Slovakia (Med a Prach), and has shared his vision of the performing arts through workshops and classes in different countries such as Costa Rica, Germany, Guatemala, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, and Spain.
His playful and curious spirit keeps him involved in several other areas of contemporary arts and culture, working to keep himself in constant renewal of his style and vision.
OUR FUNDAMENTALS
There are two approaches for our workshops: the practice of movement and the creative process.
Our personal and professional exploration has allowed us to understand that many times the tools already mastered are not the best input for an innovative creation
These workshops are the result of the systematization of various uses of games as a vehicle to forge new tools with which to feed creative processes, providing them with new languages.
We facilitate tools for creative people to update their methodological processes, expanding the possibilities offered by other areas of performing arts. Any progress will depend on the ability to unlearn and continually rework our vision of the world.
We offer spaces to awaken intelligence using intuition, through active mind-body exploration, achieving creative results and also in aspects such as injury prevention.
Empathy: a form of affective communication that produces meaningful interactions
The plié: mental and corporal state, wrongly coded by academic deformation.
Yes, and…: no proposal is prejudged or eliminated per se.
Follow, resist and transform: possibilities of action towards an impulse or proposal.
Fail: key to creative development. We create scenarios where it is okay to be wrong or fail.
Other senses: we reconcile with our less explored senses to train skills such as spatial awareness, location, balance, confidence, resourcefulness, and adaptability.
Intuitive reaction: wide repertoire of action-reaction games, with or without objects, to train speed, reaction capacity, resourcefulness, multitasking, body awareness and economy of movement.
The other is my teacher: the other / the other reflects me, training with others we analyze our own structure, alignment, impulse, resistance, and the factors that mediate in the work of “partnering”.
Feeding the imaginary: tools to keep creative sources always flowing, or to dig into our own interior and make them flow.
Imagination: essential in any process.
The process: live it and enjoy it without pressure or obsession about the final product.
Contact us
All workshops can be adapted in terms of modality, complexity, duration and scope of participants. We are interested in knowing your needs and joining forces to achieve your creative goals.
We are committed to collaboration with creative projects from other areas, including theoretical physics, robotics, music, visual arts, sports, and martial arts. We believe that these interdisciplinary connections can inspire new ideas and lead to the creation of more innovative and surprising work.
If you are interested in working with us, do not hesitate to write to us.