PURA.
The opening chapter of DESEO, a four-part dance theatre work exploring our complex relationship with the longing to belong.
In PURA., the body becomes a vessel for the contradictions of identity — the yearning to be anchored in a name, a faith, a nation — and the quiet violence of defining ourselves by exclusion.
Every attempt to hold onto belonging creates its own rupture. Through movement, voice and imagery, PURA. exposes the tension between connection and separation — how, in seeking to belong, we distance ourselves from what we truly are.
DANCERS: Ankur Singh, Annabel Knightly, Athena Reissis, Aween Ahmed Abubaker, Chloe Bellou, Daniel Rodriguez, Debora Donato, Dora Papapostolou, Eleni Vargiamidou, Jessie Abramson, Juanchi Menchaca Do Brito, Juliette Comte, Kelly Harrison, Konstantina Katsikari, Konstantinos Mouratidis, Leo Campos Barreto, Louis la Porte, Maxime Le Güzel, Megan A Yamoah, Mingzhao Lin, Pippa McLeod-Brown, Sam Shepherd, Theo Awda
ACTRESS: Montse Moreno
Visual Artist: Eleonor Morrison
CG graphics Artist: Leo Barreto
MUSIC
COMPOSER: Louis la Porte
Sound scape piano: Juan J Ochoa
Sound scape voice over: HuMo company cast
“NEXT TIME LET ME DIE FIRST”
Vocals - Flo Medforth
Violin - Jimmy Jia
Bass - Dave Johnston
Engineering - Niv Babraa
“THE LIGHT IS BACK”
Violin - Leo Rossi
Cello- Carlos García Carrasco
Recording engineer - Jacobo Díaz Giráldez
CHOIR
Dora Papapostolou, Ankur Singh, Konstantina Katsikari, Mingzhao Lin , Adrián Del Arroyo, Sam Shepherd, Tim Perkins, Niv Babraa
SCRIPT and Lyrics Adrián Del Arroyo, Louis la Porte, Konstantina Katsikari
ArtisticResearch and production development: Kelly Harrison
Hair craft: Joe Story
Costumes: Adrián Del Arroyo, Pablo Páez, CasaDelAlma studio
DESEO
A full-length dance theatre epic in four chapters
Created by Adrián Del Arroyo
DESEO is a sweeping, multi-chapter work of dance theatre that draws on the structure and spirit of epic poems to navigate the powerful, conflicting desires that shape the human psyche. Told through movement, text, orchestral sound, and a layered visual universe, DESEO explores the four primal human longings: Belonging, Pleasure, Power, and Purpose.
Set within a personal and mythic universe, DESEO follows the journey of Gloria and Tiago — two central figures accompanied by fractured versions of themselves: the Blind Past, the Trapped Alter Ego, and the Unwanted Future. Their story unfolds across four overlapping realities, each representing a different layer of consciousness. Each chapter is a descent — or a gate — into the depths of desire, where the very forces that give us strength can also threaten to consume us.
Formally, DESEO charts a reverse trajectory through language and perception. The work begins densely textured with spoken word, monologue, symbolic imagery and character, then gradually strips away the codes of communication — moving toward abstraction, stillness, silence, and light. This dramaturgical arc becomes a metaphor for transcendence: peeling back the noise of meaning to reach something essential, sensorial, and universal.
Choreographed by Adrián del Arroyo, DESEO merges contemporary dance and physical theatre with original orchestral compositions using extended techniques for piano and ensemble. It is staged within an architectural, transformable set — engineered in collaboration with a team of architects — and features a collection of over 85 bespoke costumes that evolve with the emotional terrain of the work.
Designed for large-scale touring and interdisciplinary presentation, DESEO offers programmers a modular yet thematically unified production. Each chapter can be presented independently, or as part of the full evening-length experience.
