Nocturnal Explorations: Vanesa G.R. Montoya on Crepuscular | The National Ballet of Canada

I do not try to create things that come easy for me. I try to research new pathways and explore stuff that is not necessarily easy. Like I'm new at it too. But the more I explore, the more I find ways to do things and keep things fresh and keep pushing me also like forward and evolving and growing. As much as it's for the dancers that are working with me, like a learning process, it is for me. In the piece, there's not a specific storyline or narrative, but I'm very inspired by the twilight or like the nocturnal atmosphere because I find that I start having like more ideas or like start being very creative at nighttime. I use the title of Crepuscular because it's related to twilight or it can also be used to refer something that has a nocturnal quality to it or that is like unlit or obscure. If only you can reach as far as possible so we can see this. This is the interesting moment. I have this thought of individuals going together through a journey into something like unknown, into some like dark path. Like they don't know what is going to be their outcome. It's just exploring different states of solitude and connectivity. The thought sometimes of being alone by yourself, it can be quite overwhelming. Even if you are a very independent person, we all need to having some sort of extra support, you know, for those times that we cannot just stand on our own. But it could be a negative way. You can be fearful about it or stress about it. But also it could be like a peaceful moment where you can be just with yourself, like connecting in more like a spiritual way, you know. Even though like my, I think my forte or my strength is more like towards contemporary neoclassical dance, I still see so much value in that experience that I had in classical dance because for me, all these different things are like speaking different languages. The more languages you speak, it's going to be easier to communicate with different people. And it's giving me more tools to be able to communicate better and create different things and to be able to adapt and work with very, very different people. When you get to your colleagues, make sure that you still have... Not everyone that comes to see a show are going to be a big connoisseur of like technique, but they understand about love, about suffering, about all those like basic feelings of human nature. That's what I would like to see in my piece because otherwise it's just steps. Steps with training and a lot of repetition, anyone can do, any professional dancer can do. But dance and performance, only artists can do. And this is something that, I don't know, it's a big, strong pillar for my art as a dancer and also like as a choreographer. That's what I think is important at the end of the day. The work is only going to get elevated by the artistry of the performers.