Large scale site-specific dance performance & dance film created in Lima/Peru in collaboration with filmmaker Anna Maria Staicu. 

Developed in 2015
6 dancers
Performance length: 60 min
Dance film length 12 min
Concept + Choreography: Svea Schneider
Camera + Edit: Anna Marie Staicu

PACHALIMA is a dance film and site-specific dance performance/ public dance intervention, set at the “Morro Solar” of the coastal neighborhood Chorrillos in Lima. Collaborating with five Peruvian dancers, PACHALIMA inhabits and interacts with the public space through dance, movement, sound and video.The project is inspired the Inca Philosophy of Chakana, the division of existence into three worlds: Hana Pacha, the upper world inhabited by the gods (represented by the condor); Kay Pacha, the current world inhabited by humans (represented by the puma); and Uku Pacha, the underworld inhabited by the dead (represented by the snake). Applying this philosophy onto the body and the public space, using distinct sites of the unique natural environment of the Morro Solar, the dancers interact with each site, becoming symbols of each level of existence by interpreting each world with a distinct movement language.
— Performed at: Morro Solar in Lima/Peru.

This project is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Finishing Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

Photo Credit: Javier Gamboa, Mo Van