For Sydney Dance Company’s latest production, Somos, its artistic director, Rafael Bonachela, is reflecting on his past. Somos (“we are” in Spanish) sees Bonachela return to his Catalan roots, embracing a contemporary flamenco-inspired score and choreography that is a “moving reflection” of his early years in Spain.
The choreographer and curator left home as a teenager to begin his career as a touring dancer. Before he departed his small home town of La Garriga, his mother gave him a gold pendant with his vital information engraved on the back as a form of protection. Here Bonachela tells us about that gift, as well as the story of two other important personal belongings.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
As many plants as possible. I am not that emotionally tied to objects; our home is quite minimal. When I moved to Australia I came with one suitcase, and only went back to London five years later to get the rest of my belongings.
I do, however, love my plants. I live in an apartment with my partner, Joe, and our home is an indoor jungle. When I come back home after touring internationally, the first thing I do is kiss Joe, and then I run to see the plants. Tending to them gives me so much joy – it’s a way for me to calm down and centre myself.
I try not to play favourites but I am particularly fond of my polka dot begonia. I often propagate plants and this one has produced so many baby begonias that I have since given several to our dancers, collaborators and colleagues at Sydney Dance Company.
My most useful object
A pencil – it’s still my favourite way to take notes, dream up creations and do choreographic drawings. No computer program or app gives the same pleasure . It’s a mental and physical process; the pencil becomes an extension of your body.
On our European tour I was in Bonn, Germany, and discovered an incredible old building that was originally a cinema which had been converted into a bookstore with an incredible stationery section. I bought a tin box of special pencils – they were Palomino Blackwing Pearls, the store owner said they’re handmade with Japanese incense cedar. They are amazingly smooth and a pleasure to write and sketch with.
This was a bit of an indulgence; I generally like to use the classic Staedtler pencils, like the ones that I used in school as a boy. There’s something nostalgic about having a cup of bright yellow pencils on my desk.
The item I most regret losing
When I was 16 I got my first job in Barcelona with a contemporary dance company that was about to tour Europe. Before I left, my mother gave me a gold chain with a square pendant. It had my name at the front beautifully engraved, with my blood type and my family’s telephone number at the back.
At the time – in the late 80s, before mobile phones – it was a way for my parents to feel better about letting me go abroad at such a young age. But for me the gold chain was a symbol of possibility, of everything that was about to come into my life at the beginning of my dance journey – years of touring, travelling, study, dedication and getting to know the world.
The gold chain travelled with me for many years, until it was stolen 15 years later in Portugal. It was my first time there and I was returning to my accommodation down a small laneway after a night out exploring Lisbon. At some point I became aware of a man walking close behind me and, as I got to the gate, he approached and asked for directions. Before I knew it, he’d pulled out a knife, demanding that I give him my wallet and jewellery. It was incredibly hard to hand that gold chain and pendant over to him but I did it. He grabbed my belongings and ran.
I mourned the loss of it for some time afterwards and I still do, to an extent. That pendant had been with me for so long. But my mother gave it to me as a way of protecting me, and in a funny way, I guess it did save me that night in Lisbon.
Somos runs until 18 November at Sydney Dance Company
