that's nice 8. a performance artista.

 

 

Cami Alvarez is an artist living in LA... I'll let her explain to you what kind of artist she is. Let's just say it's one part contortion and circus, one part Cuban burlesque, and one part characters she's using her body to give a voice. The always entertaining Cami (who, disclaimer, I've known way back from the good ol' elementary days) is currently the producer, conductor, vocalist and general Josephina-of-all-trades of the Circo Cubano:

Usually, I come across someone's work and reach out to them really creepily through the internet, but I know you in real life and thought you'd be such a fun part of our interview series on Miami people doing nice things. You're living in LA, but repping Miami pretty hard, can you tell miami nice a little big about what you're doing?
Well.... There are many different voices in my head. (Ha ha, that's a great way to start an interview...) But right now I'm trying to channel only this one voice that comes from a 1930's Cuban Copacabana star who has only grandiose delusions and the raw, magical energy of Cuba's musical golden age to influence her. Sure, she might have only existed in my imagination, but I think it's a shame if no one ever got to live such a beautiful existence, so I think I should let her exist through me, part time anyway. The music we (Circo Cubano) perform is a mix of the way Hollywood portrayed Cuba's exotic music scene in 1950's big budget motion pictures with over-the-top theatricality and Vaudevillian undertones, and some very entrancing rhythms with emotive lyrics that provide an exotic and psychedelic atmosphere.

[embed=videolink]http://vimeo.com/71615062[/embed]

You work across various mediums, but they all use the body as a form of communication right? What kind of artist would you call yourself?
I always liked that there wasn't a label for the type of art I did, but then I learned that the term performance art pretty much does the job, and that made me a little sad actually. But I've realized that my life is not all that different from that of an impersonator, a sword swallower or...for example my friend Harry Perry who's acquired fame for roller blading with an amp on his back while he sings and plays electric guitar with a turban on his head everyday for the past thirty years at least. We beckon that realm of wisdom the same way: by detaching from our egos and...just acknowledging and appreciating that other entity that exists in us and trusting that it might have something important to express.

Before we move on, I guess we should get the basic contortion questions on the record. How did you get into that and how do you make it look so easy?
It all started in a little town called Frenchwoods, NY when I was fifteen. Basically my parents paid for me to go to performing arts camp and not until they came to visit me a month later and found me passed out on some circus matts in front of a huge fan, covered in dirt, bruises and sweat, after having searched for me for hours all over the camp, that they learned I had actually decided to audition for the circus instead. I really liked the idea of learning to be beautiful trapeze artist soaring through the air...but at the audition they made me do a push up, and when that didn't work they made me touch my toes and...I don't know I guess that was somehow impressive to them because they chose me to perform as the contortionist in their circus with a really amazing Australian contortionist teaching me just about every move I know today. For a very long time I had the urge to stretch farther than anyone else and...so I did and now the challenge lies in balancing that with strength and power throughout my range of motion and using that talent for a worthy purpose.

Tell me a little big about Camila Maria y la Orcestra Antigua (is that still what it's called?) and how you went about putting that project together. How'd you end up with a posse of old Cuban men living in LA?
Ha ha ha! There not all old Cuban men... although I do need a certain percentage of old Cuban men just around in my life so I do have a way of seeking them out because man...are they some cool humans. But Circo Cubano has kind of formed itself with me acting as the producer, conductor and manager for the most part which of course while school was still my priority was not easy. I was also making my rent money by doing all my contortion moves every fifteen minutes three days a week for the Venice Freak Show, and biking four miles to school yet still feeling this huge necessity to have live Cuban music back in my life... and I never realized it's significance to me growing up in Miami and having my entire life scored to up until
the moment I got to LA and it was like, Hey who turned off the music?

I put up a craigslist add looking for a euphonium player for our band, and I get a message from a cellist who says her husband is an Argentinian, percussion playing clown. So naturally I invited them over and turns out they met on the last production ever of De la Guarda circus... Do you remember? that night at Vagabond that we met the Chilean girls who told us about this amazing "theater in the air" south american circus? Ever since that night I've been obsessively researching that circus and am certain that it's my favorite circus in the world not only for it's freeing innovation of creating harnesses that allow the performers to literally perform as if they had wings keeping them up there, but also just for how incredibly beautiful the people look when their expressing themselves like that... So they just moved to LA right near me and saw my ad and came to me like I had summoned them lol. And! The girl and I have the same birthday. Crazy. They both totally get it and seem to really enjoy helping it flourish just with their incredible spirits.

What's your favorite old song to sing right now?
Conoci La Paz by Beni Moore, especially with an equalizer peddle and an old fashioned vocal mic. Such a magical transportation happens. Every song I sing has been my favorite song to sing ever at some point though.

Why do you think no one is really trying to perform and preserve plain ol' Cuban music as it once was?
Well that's what I'm always asking musicians who enjoy the music but have never played it. I'm like what are you waiting for? But apparently my favorite songs to sing and dance to were extremely difficult to play even when the entire country of Cuba had thousands of professional orchestra musicians performing it for huge audiences.
Now it's become more of an elite taste, like how jazz has become something way too sophisticated for the masses but started from a time when people were so hungry they found a way to let music feed their souls. Salsa is a much easier rhythm for the masses to keep, but it's so incredible when a lot of passionate, open people go to see live Cuban music and the music is so hypnotizing that suddenly the entire audience is magically clapping in perfect clave. But I believe that what people desire changes in cycles and right now we have a lot in common with the people of the 1930's. Everywhere I go I see so many hungry heroes, and it definitely makes me feel like I transported from a very different world than I was living in before this millennium.