About
My story & motivation statement
As a latino, gay and immigrant creative, I have suffered individually from oppressing my opposite gender within myself due to the heteronormative environment I grew up in back in the Caribbean. Having to move to Europe have given me a three-dimensional perspective about gender, gender roles, cultural background and race, however, I have often felt in the verge to also oppressing my roots and demolishing my past simultaneously.
As an artist, I find freedom through my artistic voice, which translates into dance performance, music and performance art where in I challenge and deconstruct eighteenth-century European conceptions of gender, national character, and noble identity to further juxtaposing them to Afro-Caribbean contexts of repression, ancestral power and collectiveness.
Due to previous and current, both personal and profesional experiences, I firmly believe that the fusion, deconstruction and dialogue between opposing and contrasting elements can eventually be distilled into innovative performance works that impact the views of our society. Therefore, I’m interested in doors and bridges for worlds to merge and empathise.
®Photography by NORIDOYVILA
GOYES’KA
Let’s innovate, let’s celebrate diversity and the essence of the human spirit!
GOYES’KA is a dance and physical theatre emergent project-based company by Cuban born artist Henry Rodríguez. Characterized by a rich visual and an original language, the creative work hopes to find innovative ways to communicate with the audience, reflecting surreal and dreamlike choreographic landscapes inspired in the universe of Majismo.
With special attention on the creative and artistic process, the project challenges and deconstructs eighteenth-century European conceptions of gender, national character, and noble identity to further juxtaposing them to Afro-Caribbean contexts of repression, ancestral power and collectiveness.
SURREAL MAJISMO
Dissecting Majismo. A Choreographic Vision
The universe of the Majos is a starting point for generating my work. Majos were people from the lower classes of Spanish society in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were widely represented in the paintings of Francisco de Goya. I am inspired by this universe since it offers a wide range of posibilites to reflect on, deconstruct and juxtapose to the world of today and tomorrow. Within the landscapes of Majismo, I find a rich palette of colors and emotions with which to interact and explore to opening up to new interpretations.
Under the influence of absurd nuances, extreme physicality and emotion, I create amalgams of eclectic scenarios where a wide variety of languages spanning from European to Afro-Caribbean dance genres and expressions interact. In this space, I am fascinated by the possibility of exploring and saturating contrasting elements between classicism, romanticism, minimalism, among others, fused and sustained in the gaze of both Surrealism and Majism.
®Photography by Marco Cappalunga
-
Henry Rodríguez
FOUNDER
Henry Rodríguez is an independent choreographer, educator and performing artist born in Cuba. He received his early education in dance at the UAD Ballet Español de Cuba, under the direction of Eduardo Veitia. During his studies as a seventeen-year-old he began to perform with Ballet Español de Cuba in ballets such as Carmen, La Casa Alba, El Sombrero de los Tres Picos, La Traviata, El Fantasma, Aquel Brujo Amor, Frida, Danzando Sueños, etc. in events such as La Huella de España, the International Ballet Festival of Havana, among others.
-
After graduation from the National School of Dance in 2011, he received an apprenticeship with Rosario Cardenas Danza Combinatoria, directed by Rosario Cardenas. During his time with Danza Combinatoria he performed in works such as Maria Viván, El Monte, Zona Cuerpo, Punto Ciego, El Ascenso, and his very first Spanish-contemporary choreographic work ‘Compás en Bulerías’, among others. Alternatively he worked with Cuban-Spanish choreographer Pepe Hevia and with companies Ballet Rakatan, chiefed by Nilda Guerra and with Danza Alternativa Asi Somos, directed by Lourdes Cajigal and founded by American dancer and choreographer Lorna Burdsall.
He joined Danza Contemporánea de Cuba in 2016 and since worked in pieces such as The Listening Room, Las paredes se van, Matria Etnocentra, among others by international choreographers Julio Cesar Iglesias, Theo Clinkard and George Cespedes. During his time with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, the company toured worldwide to renowned theatres, such as the Barbican Hall, the Wales Millennium Centre, Royal Concert Hall Nottingham among others.Henry moved to the Netherlands to study Modern Theatre Dance as a guest student at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Alternatively, he has also worked with Amsterdam based choreographers Iris Reyes and Faizah Grootens, and began creating his own small-scale produced performances for dance festivals and commissions in Europe and abroad. Featured works are ‘MAJOS’, ‘CASA’, ‘Dador’, ‘Fabián, Apuntes 1969’, ‘Lost in Parameterization’ and ‘Carnem Exilui’.
-
In 2022 Henry created GOYES’KA, a dance and physical theatre emergent project-based company and platform for interdisciplinary works and where he is delving into his own music and choreographic practice.
In the scholar year 2023-2024, he completed the BA Teacher of Classical Ballet program at the Nationale Balletacademie, Academie voor Theater en Dans (Amsterdamse Hogeschool van de Kunsten). During this program, besides deepening in the study of the Vaganova methodologie, he also researched on a new choreographic method: 'Map D-Construct Classical', which is based on the deconstruction of classical ballet technique and vocabulary at the intersection of ballet and neuroscience.
With a distinct movement language known by a powerful and innovative physicality, Henry’s work progresses consciously and continuously from project to project. Together to his creations, he gives dance lessons and workshops in relation to his creative process and new works.
L ‘ D E L T A
Music for dance, film & theatre
HIGH ENERGY
VERY DANCE &
SOUND DRIVEN
Awards, Residencies & Commissions
-
ICK Dans Amsterdam |
Scholarship Award Season 2024/2025AmsterDans International Competition 7th Edition |
3RD PRIZE
‘MAJOS’ -
Cross Academy Fund
Amsterdam Hoogeschool van de Kunsten - Dutch National Ballet Academy |
‘Juxtaposed’ -
DOOR FOUNDATION
OPEN DOORS SHORT RESIDENCY |
‘The Physicality Of Rootlessness’Swindon Dance
Digital 4 Commission 2022 |
‘Lost In Parameterization’BURGOS & NEW YORK
INTERNATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHY CONTEST
MOVING SPACES |
1ST AWARD
‘DISCURSO PÚBLICO’LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival |
EXCELLENCE AWARD
‘FABIAN, APUNTES 1969’ -
EUROPE IN DANCE GRAND PRIX |
3RD PRIZE
‘DADOR’