A performance for TEDx Dalt Vila, as part of the global TED conference initiative, which took place in March 2023 in the Centro Cultural Can Ventosa, Ibiza (video link below).

‘In those days we knew nothing
about gold, but we had water.
We prayed to God in Sunday mass,
but we found our souls by the wells,
and that’s why we danced at the wells,
on midsummers’ nights, to praise
the waters that gave us life.’

In this solo performance, a puppet is brought to life to represent a fading generation of countrywomen on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. As this ‘payesa’ shares her tale, we are offered a brief moment to grieve for the traditional ways of life, local lore and indigenous knowledge that have been lost on Ibiza, and in communities around the world, as a result of globalisation.

This performance featured a musical score by Pere Verges Coma, and an audiovisual sequence featuring the dancer and performance artist Ines Sarmiento Huerta, filmed by Enrique Villalonga. The TEDx video includes subtitles in eivissenc, Ibiza’s native dialect of Catalan, translated by the Ibizan poet Jessica Ferrer Escandell.