It's been a minute since we've introduced ourselves, so we're doing a series for you to meet the artists that make up Flying Leap! First up, meet Ana Cantorán Viramontes!
Ana in The Garden at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, January 2024. Photo by Winston Williams.
Ana Cantorán Viramontes is a Mexican-born, Brooklyn-based theater artist who has collaborated and performed in award-winning national and international works in devised theater and performance art in America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Ana has been with Flying Leap since 2021 and is one of the first artists to help create the foundation of our company.
She co-created and performed in The Garden, and is a collaborating artist of Beyond the Wall II Más Allá del Muro. Ana is also a talented facilitator and teaching artist and joined Jess and Susanna on our trip to the ASSITEJ Conference in Cuba where we presented a session about radical access and our outdoor show The Garden!
We asked Ana three questions about her work:
What is a memorable moment you have had on a Flying Leap Project?
Ana with teen participants and FL artist Jacksubeli Gonzalez, building a giant puppet at the Guggenheim as part of Beyond the Wall, Aug 2024. Photo by Susy Abraham.
Working on a project called Beyond the Wall, Más Allá del Muro, where we were able to partner with the Guggenheim Museum and bring a community of New York City teenagers that have a history of migration. We made this giant puppet that the teenagers designed, and it was so awesome to hear their voices being expressed, what they wanted, what they didn't want, and ultimately come up with such a creative way to express and talk about identity.
It was also very special to have the opportunity to work with the other Mexican artists that came to New York City and be able to be with people that share similar experiences as me.
What is a value that is important in your work?
One of the most important values for myself as a creative and as a theater artist is joy.
I think it's very important to create an environment where people can feel joy, because when I feel joyful, I feel safe and I feel more brave and I want to go to work. That doesn't mean that all the themes and everything that I am attracted to in my artistic work is joyful but when doing the work I like to have that sense of ease and joy.
Ana with FL artist/admin Susanna Brock, leading a workshop on access at the TYA/USA national conference in Tempe, AZ in 2023. Photo by TYA/USA.
What is something artistically that you are working on?
A personal project of mine that has been cooking in my imagination for quite a while is called Quebranto. Quebranto means to shatter or to break, and it explores those moments that all of us experience where there is a wound, when we are wounded and there is like a breaking. It is the first piece of a trilogy that it's much longer and it's a very ambitious project, but this is the first phase of it.