Party lovers, nocturnal animals, knowledgeable audiophiles, enthusiastic event-goers, festival freaks, and everybody in between – welcome home.
This new series under the name “The Story After” is where we’re going to be coming together and sharing the stories of the events that changed our lives.
Who is Carlos Aller?
I am a 31-year-old Spanish dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. I am also one of the co-founders of Frantics Dance company based in Berlin.
My first contact with the world of dance happened in 2005 when I began breakdancing in the streets of my hometown Valladolid. As I started participating in different competitions around Spain, I discovered that dance was not just a hobby for me but a big passion.
This inspired me to move to Berlin in 2012 where I felt I could experience more varieties of dance while also demonstrating my skills. I eventually graduated from the Tanzfabrik Berlin Dance School where I got to develop my personal style, learn many techniques and new ways of self-expression. During my year at Tanzfabrik, my peers and I created our own dance company under the name of Frantics which is my primary motivation and focus today.
Describe what movement means to you in 3 words.
Passion, lifestyle, profession.
Share with us a funny or awkward story from your experience as a dance teacher and choreographer.
Once in an open public rehearsal, we needed to pull down the pants of a dancer in order to see their underwear in that particular scene. Well, the dancer forgot to wear underwear that day! You can imagine what happened…
How did you know that dance is what you should dedicate your life and career to?
I have an obsession with dance. There is not a single day I don’t think about it.
Dance for me is like an inner meditation that improves my body awareness and also helps me to project my emotions outwards. Sometimes I spend 16 hours a day working on something related to dance and it just feels like time is flying.
Tell us about an event that changed your life.
The first time I met the other guys from Frantics and we started dancing together!
We met at a dance studio in Berlin. Our bunch quickly realized that we were dancing differently than the rest of the BBOYS (breakdance boys) and so we decided to start a group and develop our own style. In the beginning, we were attending a lot of dance workshops in the city in order to get inspiration and ideas. Afterwards, we would go out to the clubs for research and practice!
What festivals, events, or projects do you dream of participating in?
I don’t necessarily have a specific dream of performing somewhere. Frantics has already participated in some of the biggest theaters and festivals! What I dream of is creating something that will help and empower people to become better humans. One of the initiatives we are doing around that concept is using dance as art therapy!
What you just mentioned in the previous question fits very well with our vision of expanding human connection! What life milestones are you most looking forward to right now?
My priority is to keep the passion that makes me dance every day. That’s my biggest goal. My job is my passion so it’s sometimes hard to separate things. The life of an artist is more difficult than people might imagine! One needs to always find inspiration in order to continue creating.
What’s your earliest memory connected to performing?
I perceive everything as a performance.
When you go to the shop to buy bread, it’s a performance. When you cook it’s also a performance. When you take a shower it’s a performance! We are just not aware of it.
But my first memory of performing… My earliest memory connected to performing is when I was 4-years-old. I would dance flamenco with my family every Christmas! Just for fun. I had zero idea about the techniques or about musicality. I was simply clapping my hands and enjoying watching my aunt play the guitar with everybody else moving in a circle.
Please tell us about your experience directing “The Last Sunset”, an immersive dance-theatre performance around the topic of fossil fuels and their negative impact. What should the audience expect?
It feels right to be co-choreographing and dancing in a piece that is tackling a deep and important topic. That makes me feel alive! At the end of the day I feel proud of my partners and of myself as we are not just creating for fun, but for the good of the planet.
After the pandemic, many artists started questioning themselves and wondering if art is something essential. But art can also be a way to save the planet! “The Last Sunset” aims to provoke empathy, compassion, fear, love, and many other emotions.
Our audience should anticipate vital information about what would happen if we don’t look after Mother Earth. The planet has been taking care of us for thousands of years, so now it’s our time to take care of her.
People can expect a performance full of stories, emotions, conflicts, solutions, and even interactions with the audience!
Follow Carlos here and grab your tickets for “The Last Sunset” here!
The list of people we’ve been eyeing for an interview is getting longer and longer, and you can also be a part of it! This is a space for anyone who’s ever attended an event (whether that’s a digital conference, a yoga retreat, a techno festival, or… you name it!) and has something to say about it.
How did it change your life? What did you learn? Who did you meet? What did you feel? We can talk about the connections we’ve made while we continue building new ones. Let’s co-create a memory book full of recollections we’d like to keep forever.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Linkedin and send us a DM with a story about an event that changed your life. Don’t miss out on the rest of the series, read the previous interview here: The Story After with Elena Sergova.
