50/50
Butterflies and Abilities
caraz x luca patuelli
CARAZ | Director based in Montreal
LUCA PATUELLI | Founder/Manager/Dancer of the ILL-Abilities International Dance Crew
CARAZ How did you build your character for the film and what were your inspirations?
LUCA I would say that this was one of the few projects where I gave total “carte blanche” to the choreographer, Alessandro Giaquinto, and you, Caraz. Normally, in my past experiences when I work with people I always have a way of doing things my way. This time around I let myself go and trusted you both. I appreciated Alessandro’s approach in the movement research process – to play around with lots of different ideas. I felt like I related to the storyline you built. The idea of the inner child in me felt natural with the character work for this film.
I feel through these past two years I’ve gone through a rollercoaster of emotions and was inspired to exaggerate all of those moments. Another beauty of this project is that we started with a blank sheet of paper. No musical inspiration, no story or narrative, which initially was weird for Alessandro and me, as we usually have something to work with. This time we decided to just see where things took us and wait until we received word on the next steps. I think the fact that Alessandro and I had built a relationship for a couple of months before you confirmed your role as the director helped the process. If we were to work on an idea, music, and movement immediately, it could have added stress to the project and the final outcome might have been different. Sometimes it works to our benefit to have that push with a deadline, but other times it works out better to build a relationship with the people you work with to work more like a team. This project was a great definition of teamwork.
“I feel through these past two years, I’ve gone through a rollercoaster of emotions and was inspired to exaggerate all of those emotions.” -LUCA
“Something unique was happening between you two. I fell in love with the way you created together. Alessandro’s expressive personality and precision pulled me in and your joyful willingness to try anything seriously kept me there”
— CARAZ
LUCA What motivated you to accept directing this project? (essentially why did you decide you wanted to take on the challenge of working with us?)
CARAZ I was not so sure about getting involved in the collaboration when Jacob first reached out. I knew if I wanted to create a great piece for the series it would require a tremendous amount of work and resources therefore I declined the proposal. A few months later, JJTC reached out again and convinced me to meet with you and Alessandro to see if we had a fit. This is where it sparked. Something unique was happening between you two. I fell in love with the way you created together. Alessandro’s expressive personality and precision pulled me in and your joyful willingness to try anything seriously kept me there. After that first call, I was totally in.
LUCA: Who do you hope will see this film? And what do you hope they get from it?
CARAZ: I hope the film touches some people, perhaps gives hope or sparks dreams amongst the disabled community, and shows that some codes from dance films can be played with. But deep down, I’m just happy we did it this way. I feel like I created this film for us (and the talented artists that joined us) as a way to reflect our time together. Any other outcome is a nice extra.
CARAZ Why aren’t you dancing with your signature crutches in “Do Butterflies Remember Being Caterpillars?”
LUCA I don’t know, ask Alessandro the choreographer. In all honesty, I gave myself total trust in the creative process and let Alessandro and Caraz direct me. I think the initial idea to not have my crutches was for me to explore movements with my arms, and hands. Usually when you see me move and dance I focus so much on strength movements that I don’t take the time to dance and extend my arms in creative ways. Then as we started building the scenario I think we forgot about the crutches and went on with it. After watching the film I like that the crutches aren’t in the forefront of it as the viewer is watching me as an actor and if you don’t know who I am, you might not know that I use crutches to walk. I like the mystery of it.
LUCA: When you took on this project, did you already have in mind a scenario/storyline you were inspired by or did you come up with all your ideas after a couple of rehearsals with Alessandro and me? What was the source of your inspiration?
CARAZ: I had zero ideas for the storyline. For the first meetings, I would just sit there and watch. The source of my inspiration mainly came from little details, like facial expressions or some of the movements you named Butterfly, Elephant man, Bouncy-bouncy, and what they represented for me. As the choreography took form, I only knew it had to be about the duality of adulthood and childhood, an opposition between burden and freedom. Then, I let the information sit in my brain for a few days and one night before falling asleep the film came to me. The next morning, I was ready to build the treatment.
