Alexa Capareda: Virtuosity, Technicality, and the In-Betweens

Alexa Capareda is a Ballet Master for Ballet Austin II and the Butler Fellows, and Co-Producer in experimental, bound-breaking dance troupe Frank Wo/Men Collective. This weekend Alexa performs a time-based conceptual piece becoming the cloud-based voice app and AI virtual assistant, Alexa.

This two segment interactive performance is happening this weekend at Fusebox Festival and we just couldn’t wait to get the inside scoop. Read on to learn about the perspectives and work ethic that formed this erratically moving Austin,TX based “Alexa… _________” taking command.

CA: How would you describe yourself?

AC: I am a dancer, choreographer, ballet master, producer, assistant, educator, art and theatre enthusiast, virtual helper, Instagram wiggler, and sugar-powered noodle robot. I engage in unaffected virtuosity, versatility, and the earnest and playful.

CA: How would you describe your visual language as a dancer and a choreographer?

AC: I have a strong classical background, so that always filters through, but I tend to play into more contemporary aesthetics as well as inject some humor into my work. Musicality is key. I attempt to be as versatile as I can be stylistically— fluid in one moment and staccato in the next, or big and swirly into minute, isolated gestures. There's a sort of genuine quirky quality to my movement and I've come to embrace and take advantage of that. I find levity refreshing and my work tends to end up with a good dose of it. I do think it's important not to force humor and I find that approaching something in earnest is the most genuine way to achieve it. 

CA: As someone who works in a disciplined medium, how does technique factor into your vision? And, how much practice would you say goes into an average performance?

AC: I highly value technicality and virtuosity, and always strive for it. I like watching things that are impressive and I like making myself work extremely hard towards a certain standard. Even when I choreograph something with a lot of predetermined phrase work, I aim to leave room for improvisation and/or added texture. I do think that a lot of the magic happens through improvisation, and I frequently trust my body more than my overthinking mind. It depends on the piece—sometimes I'll have to rehearse phrase work over weeks, or sometimes preparation means laying out a structure or score to play with.

CA: How does your multinational background and education inform your practice?

AC: I grew up in the Philippines and that perspective and sense of cultural identity comes into my work. Not always explicitly, but it's always there.

CA: What creatives and choreographers have influenced you?

AC: My formal training and the styles of the choreographers I have worked with are etched into my body (from the neoclassical/contemporary work of my former director Mario Radacovsky in Slovakia to ARCOS's  distinct modern movement, to the sculptural physicality of Magdalena Jarkowiec's work, to Jennifer Hart of Performa Dance's kinetic contemporary ballet work), but I also love hip-hop and other styles of dance and aspire to a high level of versatility. Austin art also has an unapologetic casualness and weirdness that is a comfy space to be in and allows me to find many in-betweens.

CA: What would you say effective art functions in doing?

AC: It tugs at the intangible sensations we experience as human beings. It helps us get closer to the things we perhaps know but can't express. We seek out stimuli that brings us to altered states of awareness. Art, in both tiny ways and big ways, can make us perceive the universe differently. Art can be candy to some and a main dish to others, and that's great.

CA: Can you tell us more about this art piece for Fusebox Festival this weekend?

AC: As I imagine many folks spending hours at home barking orders at their Amazon Alexas, and because of my deep craving to exploit the ubiquity of my name at the current moment— I, Alexa, will host two interactive livestream segments of “Alexa… _________” where people (you) pick a song for me to dance to, give me dance/acting improvisational prompts, ask me to tell a joke or look up something on Wikipedia, or read a poem, or have me attempt to draw something, and et cetera. 

Seeing as I am not actually a machine, it could be extremely entertaining to see how well/badly I can rise to each task and keep up. I will be on a Zoom call that is streamed through YouTube Live and Facebook Live, and people from all three platforms will be able to type in commands.

CA: What led to a performance based in the embodiment of house-hold Artificial Intelligence?

AC: A couple years ago, I created a solo called "Alexa, do the Blue Danube Waltz."— imagining how highly skilled yet erratic A.I. would dance and act physically. I've continued to want to exploit the fact that I share a name with the household robot. I have also been partially inspired by Michelle Ellsworth, who has performed at Fusebox in years past and is a zany, brilliant character who creates all this content and pieces of apparatus and has an insane set of skills while existing genuinely as an ultimate dancing body and storyteller.

CA: Can you illustrate what Fusebox has been like in past years, and describe what you think it’ll be like this year (in ‘Virtual Edition’).

AC: Normally, it's jam packed with EXPERIENCE. Across genres and styles and sensibilities, and each work packs a punch. This weekend will certainly lack the electric physical presence of audiences, breathing and sitting together in the dark...

I think this weekend will provide genuine insight into who the artists are and their processes more so than just seeing their works as standalone live events.

CA:How do you think this time, during "shelter in place" will impact video, digital entity, and virtual based art?

I think it will have us evaluate our attention spans and really have us dig at what it is about certain media that pulls us in to watch and stay engaged.

You can see (and interact with) Alexa Capareda’s Fusebox Festival performance this Saturday, April 25 at 2:35pm CDT. Follow her work (@acapareda) or visit her website.

You can see (and interact with) Alexa’s Fusebox Festival performance this Saturday, April 25 at 2:35pm CDT. Follow Alexa (@acapareda) and see more of her work on her website.