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OTION

OTION

area: MC, Performance, Spoken Word Poet, Singer-Songwriter

© OTION

© OTION

© OTION

© OTION

Key Facts

nationality

Netherlands

area

MC, Performance, Spoken Word Poet, Singer-Songwriter

residence

Amsterdam

recommending institution

frei_raum Q21 exhibition space

time period

August 2022 - September 2022

OTION (Guillermo Armand Blinker) is a dancer, singer/song/creative writer, choreographer and performance maker.

CV:

Professional Experience (recent):
2022 Promise You Will Sing About Me – music created for film installation by Sean Hannan and Vincent van Velsen
2022 Missa Mater Sola, theatrical choir concert – musical performance
2021 Soloperformance for “Other Futures Festival” – music
2021 “Touch’m” the film premiere at Het Nieuwe Instituut –music, choreography, lead performance in film
2021 “I.nner D.ive“ performance piece created during residency at Het Hem – theatrical concert

Teaching:
2021 Design Academy Eindhoven (Master’s Program Social Design) – workshop, performance “Embody Your Design”
2012- 2018 Codarts University for Performing Arts - guest teacher modern and afro/jazz/hip hop/house
2012 – 2018 Joffrey Ballet School NYC Summer intensive - guest teacher, choreographer

Published writing:
2020 Inside Black (poetry chapter for artbookcurated by Leslie Browne) - writer

Scholarships and Awards:
2010 HSP Talent Scholarship - full scholarshipprovided by Huygens

Internship:
2009 Scapino Ballet Rotterdam - assistant choreographer for Georg Reischl

Education:
2020 – 2021 Creative Leadership Coaching at Art of Alignment Academy (Certificate)
2010 – 2011 ISVP Broadway Dance Center concentration jazz/contemporary (Certificate)
2008 – 2010 Bachelor of Dance Specialized in Choreography at RotterdamDance Academy/Codarts University for the Arts (Graduated BA)
2006 – 2008 Bachelor Studies of Performing Arts at Lucia Marthas Institute for Performing Arts (propedeuse / transferred after 2nd year)
2000 – 2006 HavoGerrit v/d Veen College in combination with prepatory school for jazz, show and musical theater dance at Lucia Marthas Institute for Perfoming Arts

I am interested in the art of healing and transformation. Inspired by Indigenous shamanistic healing practices that involve music and dance, I imagine spaces, rituals, and ceremonies for the contemporary urban environment. Within this ceremonial context I create work that reflects the human experience using water, waterbodies, water states and water motion as a metaphor, symbolic reference and source of inspiration. Water is the most resonant physical element in the cosmos, which makes its relationship to sound a profound one. Water’s fluid interplay carries information that shapes our being. The fact that our body is composed mostly of water is significant in our capacity to make a reference to self. I create from the belief that knowing more about water equals knowing more about self and about life. My practice involves writing text (monologue/poetry/songs), composing music, choreographing dances and creating performances.

As a performer I embody concepts and translate them to the audience, spectator, or participant in the space. My expression moves from the voice to the body and back. Informed by my education in multiple forms of dance, musical theater, choreography, and the exploration of my voice in song and spoken word poetry, my performance functions as a portal to a world of my making. The stage persona / character / identity that carries these concepts into the space is OTION (pronounced as ocean).

OTION is the Master of Ceremony. He stands in the middle of the ancestral and the futuristic as he aims to create magic in the present moment, functioning as the connecting force/element that unites the people with the metaphysical. On a personal level he is the unapologetic black, queer manifestation of an ancestral dream for the future. His presence is a wave that sets the room and the bodies in the room in motion, using his voice to sing, rap, preach, chant, invoke and inspire.

My sonic creation is best described as a loop-based layering of percussive, harmonizing and digitally manipulated vocals, composed into soundscapes and songs. These sonic creations are the foundation of my performances. I find most of my musical inspiration in r&b, hip hop, neo soul, jazz, traditional afro-Surinamese and west -African music. From there, I imagine sonic landscapes that invite layers of contemporary electronic dance beats that make reference to the clubbing experience.

All these elements combined create a container in which I as a performer can completely surrender to the present moment and interact with an audience from an intuitive place. My performance is an improvised solo melody that dances on top of a constructed world, playing with the tension between harmony and disharmony to trigger an emotional release.

 

During the MQ-residency and as part of the exhibition No Dancing Allowed singer-songwriter and dancer OTION will explore a collective dream experiment in collaboration with visual artist, curator and educator Bambi van Balen.

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