Translating, connecting, making it through –– Artist Chat with Charly and Eriel Santagado
by Kathryn Boland
Have you ever worked with immediate family members? It can be challenging and it can be magical (and no, those aren’t mutually exclusive!). New Jersey-based Charly and Eriel Santagado grew up dancing together and knew from a young age that they wanted to form a dance company––and so they did. Their company mignolo dance, established in 2017, “explores elements of various artistic mediums through the lens of movement” and seeks to build meaningful connections between artists of all mediums.
In addition to being a dancer and choreographer, Charly is a fellow dance writer. I met up with her and Eriel while I still lived in NYC. Their creative vision and dynamic as sisters were immediately compelling to me, and my interest only deepened as I experienced their company’s work and got to know them better as artists.
I spoke with Charly and Eriel over Zoom as part of my Artist Chat series, a way to foster dialogue and connection––as well as uplift artists who are doing great work––through these challenging pandemic times. We discussed what it’s like to work together as sisters, the wonders and challenges inherent in their company’s mission, what they envision for the company going forward, and more.
KB: You’re a dynamic dancing sister duo! What’s it been like to start and grow a dance company together?
ES: Working together creatively is incredible––it’s one of the most natural things in the world. We riff off each other and it’s super easy once we get into a flow. Honestly, the business side of things comes much less naturally *they both laugh a little*.
CS: It’s easy enough for us to keep the creative work to the studio––we’re either there or we’re not. With the business side of things though, it’s harder to maintain that boundary, and talk of the company often infiltrates our (very limited!) leisure time -- which is stressful and can lead to animosity.
But we also know that no matter what, it’ll be fine between us––most of our disagreements are annoying to deal with, but momentary and fleeting. For example, I’m aggressively ambitious. Sometimes Eriel has to rein me in and say “we don’t need another project right now!” And I’m annoyed for a few minutes before capitulating that she’s right, at least about that. *they both laugh a little again*.
KB: mignolo dance “explores various artistic media through the lens of movement”. How did that focus evolve?
CS: It’s very cut and dry, really, and I tell this story often. I was a philosophy major in college with minors in dance, music and creative writing. and I would always wonder, “Why aren’t the musicians and the dancers friends? Why aren’t we talking about the overlap between language and movement?” I just couldn’t wrap my head around why those connections between artists working in different mediums weren’t happening. Motivated by my frustration at this inexplicable disconnect, I wrote my senior honors thesis on the commonalities of art forms and how we might translate between them. Since then, this idea of translation has been at the heart of our creative practice.
ES: And let’s say that we eventually find out that creative output from different artforms aren’t directly “translatable.” Worst case scenario, we’ve built a community between artists working in different mediums and explored interdisciplinarity in a genuine, collaborative way.
CS: Yes, a major goal of all of this is to forge an interdisciplinary community of artists from diverse backgrounds founded on in depth engagement and exploration across disciplines. For example, I’ve always always been interested in literature, and we do a lot of work with language.
I’ve seen plenty of work with text in it, and some of it is great (Crystal Pite!), but much of what I’ve seen barely even begins to explore the rich possibilities that arise when language and movement are in genuine conversation, and at worst use language as a crutch to deliver a message they are worried isn’t fully coming through the movement.
There are of course a vast number of ways to parse out the relationship between text and movement, but the primary way we’ve been working with language is through what we call Movenglish®. To fulfill the community element of our mission, we also publish Pinky Thinker Press, an interdisciplinary arts magazine, and host several other offerings.
KB: What are you most proud of in your creative journey thus far––individually and/or as a team? Conversely, what’s a growth area you’re working on or a goal you’re working towards?
ES: Something we’re really proud of is our first evening-length piece, Manifested Destiny, which faced setback after setback due to the pandemic. It was supposed to premiere in May 2020 at Jersey City Theater Center. With the onset of COVID-19, four of our twelve dancers moved out of the state, so we had to recast the show and teach the work over Zoom. We managed to find a parking garage in our town that was willing to host us and in November of 2020 we sold out two drive-in shows. Performing live after so many months in lockdown and hearing cars beeping in applause at the end of each performance was really special, and we’ll never forget that moment and how hard we worked to get there.
CS: Something we’re working on is building greater diversity in the company in a way that actually supports and creates a space for minority perspectives rather than merely filling some institutionally ordained quota. We’re struggling a bit in this regard, and it might have to do with where we’re located in suburban New Jersey, but we of course have not given up on this front and are actively seeking ways to diversify both our company and our audiences. In the meantime, we’re finding other ways to foster equality such as accessible and affordable classes and intensives, as well as performances in alternative spaces.
KB: COVID hasn’t been easy on anyone, and artists are in no way immune to that struggle––in fact, there have been immense creative, logistical, and financial challenges. What has your creative life looked like through this time (and that can certainly include things outside of dance!)? What’s given you light through this time, as artists and as humans?
CS: Having our own studio has been an incredible privilege, particularly during these trying times, and the ability to provide a space for other dancers to train (through classes) and make work in (through residencies and affordable space rentals) safely has been humbling and inspiring. Before COVID, we were in the city all the time performing, running around a lot, and it’s been great to breathe and take it a little slower––though we’ve been busier than ever so slower might not be quite the right word! We’ve also been able to explore screendance more, which has offered its own set of possibilities and challenges.
ES: COVID gave us a chance to explore making work in ways we hadn’t before, to think more expansively. Despite having fewer in person performances than ever, we’ve drastically increased our body of work and I’m really excited for what’s in store in the next few years for us.
KB: It’s all so uncertain right now, but to the extent that you can say -- what’s next for the company, and either/both of you? Do you have any particular benchmarks or goals you’d like to achieve in your creative life or otherwise?
CS: We have an evening length virtual project in the works, and recently received a grant from Middlesex County––our first substantive grant, which we are extremely grateful for––another evening length project The virtual piece is based on a famous murder mystery novel and uses our developing Movenglish vernacular, and the other,Visitor Parking, is a highly interdisciplinary, site specific immersive piece about mental health, which will premiere on the weekend of October 8-10 in honor of World Mental Health Day.
ES: There’s a section based on the dynamic between a patient and psychiatrist, and that’s going to become its own evening length piece in 2022. While we are very excited to be performing in our hometown parking deck again, we’re also eager to get back into the theater and set this work with full theatrical sound and lighting.
KB: Thanks so much for your time and for sharing your insights and experiences! Anything else you’d like to add before we say goodbye?
CS: Because our studio space, mignolo arts center, opened to the public during COVID, we’ve had a bit of a slow start. We are working on growing our class programming and hope to substantially increase the amount of artist rentals to make the space sustainable for the long term. Come visit us in Metuchen! We will be having a large opening event on September 18––save the date!
ES: Our programming is very much geared toward artists because we know the difficulties of being an artist in America in the 21st century. Our summer intensive, for example, features an incredible lineup of guest artists, is super cheap (relative to market rates), and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Learn more about mignolo dance’s hybrid 2021 Summer Intensive here!
