Single-channel video installation, b/w, sound
6 min 3 sec

The Argentinian-born multidisciplinary artist Cecilia Bengolea explores forms of popular dance by combining contemporary and traditional elements and hybridizing figures and movements. Over the years, she has worked extensively in Jamaica, collaborating with the local dancehall scene. She describes her fascination with the highly sexualized and energizing moves of dancehall, which are also believed to have therapeutic benefits, endowing practitioners with healing and self-amplifying powers.

In Lightning Dance, Bengolea explores the role of social street dance and popular culture, as well as the relationship of individual and collective bodies with nature. As a dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, she aspires to tap into what she calls the “harmonic communication highways” by which the self synchronizes with its surroundings. During a night of thunderstorms and heavy rain, several young Jamaicans perform solo and group dance routines next to a roadside shack. Their drenched bodies vibrate with the low-frequency dancehall music as their movements echo the repetitive swaying of windscreen wipers of bypassing cars. A flash of lightning heightens the surreal atmosphere, which, enhanced by the black-and-white aesthetic, emphasizes the energetic gestures of the performers.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1979. Lives and works in Paris, France.