Today we are with Davidson Linares better known as Gerard. A young Venezuelan who at only 23 years of age lives and dreams for dancing. He tells us about his work and other artistic work he performs.
Astrid: Since when do you dance and what inspired you to do it?
Gerard: From a very young age I was always attracted to dance, although I practiced other disciplines, they always ended up boring me and I only watched dance videos on Youtube.
When I was 15 years old I began to attend cultural spaces where I saw and did a little bit of everything in terms of artistic expressions, that’s when I fell in love with art.
All this inspired me a lot to learn to dance, know the styles and execute movements, in that creative process I have encounters with myself, either because dance requires body knowledge, the abilities that you discover in you are incredible, all the freedom you adapt in your body is captivating to feel it.
Astrid: What has it been like mixing dance with modeling?
Gerard: Since I started dancing I understood that to dance at its best you must know your body at an excellent level, that is why I considered studying in depth about body expression, this encounter creates a new being in me, and frees me from stigmas and stereotypes within myself in order to give way to an eccentric and purely artistic entity.
•GERARD• is that entity, alternative, stylized and androgyno model. Let’s say that unconsciously it is the result of the aforementioned study.
I studied audiovisual production and photography, despite really liking the part of being a photographer, I always ended up posing for my classmates in the assignments and I got to know the area of the pose and model.
Being in the middle of both processes my mind, my dance and my corporeality were going to a thousand as I also did and continues to do my aesthetics.
Astrid: Have you participated in festivals or competitions at the national level?
Gerard: I was in a dance crew called “Soul Dancers Crew” with which I had the opportunity to attend the DAM (Challenge to the movement) competition that summons several academies both in Caracas and the interior, a moving, exciting and intriguing experience.
Maybe it’s not common, but the reality is that I don’t usually compete much and it’s something with pros and cons that I keep working on.
Astrid: What other jobs do you have outside of dancing?
Gerard: I was working as a post producer in a national channel, I left him for reasons of force majeure, and currently together with the production of the company UNITY BAZAR VENEZUELA, where I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about production, assembly, logistics and organization, among them, I was assigned in one of the events we had, to be a host, surprisingly I connected with the public and that’s when the UNITY policy mentions me Official Host.
Astrid: What rhythms inspire you to dance?
Gerard: My beginnings with videos, I really liked breaking, when I start dancing, I know Dancehall, I gave myself madly to it, consecutively I venture with Hip Hop where I acquire more attitude and strength, after that and that is where I am currently, in the afro.
A genre and style with which I identify a lot and where I feel really comfortable and free.
All styles handle an energy, a very different hype and that is what it is about, experimenting with all the nuances within what refers to dance.
Astrid: What name do you define your dance style?
Gerard: Apart from what I have experienced in dance, the other facets in which I have been able to develop such as modeling and production have attributed values to what has been my path and creative process.
To define it would be to limit it but at this point in my life I would name it as CHALELEON, due to the versatility with which I usually express myself when I am dancing.
Astrid: What project would you like to do in relation to your work?
Gerard: I am in the pre-production of a Workshop or cultural meeting directed to the city where I live (January 23) where children, adelescents and young people have a space for conversation about different forms of expression, together with exhibitors of national stature, that in it values are disseminated within these communities and the conglomerate is encouraged to make art, Recover spaces and spread culture.
Astrid: Any reference artists?
Gerard: I could name a lot of singers and dancers…
Chris Brown (singer) Parris Goebel (choreographer) Burna Boy (singer) Laure Courtellemont (choreographer) wizkid (singer).
Astrid: Do you think your dance will make an impact on today’s society?
Gerard: I firmly believe that what I’m doing, I do well, because of how I feel doing it.
There will always be good and bad reactions, everything will depend on the point of view with which you see and feel at the moment of seeing me dance.
I have received any kind of comments, but I always consider that my intentions and energy when dancing are the best, in order to receive the same in return, I like more that people are the impact for me.
However. I can’t help but feel sensational with expressions of affection that make me after being in hype, for me, my dance has the scope to move sensations, emotions, bodies and energy.
Astrid: Would you do this for the rest of your life?
Gerard: There have been dark days and even seasons where I walked away from all this and came to think it was just a hobby.
Thank God, life opened my mind and my eyes, so that I realized that I was born to be an artist, to do this, to dance, to express, to make art.
Thanks to Gerard for this beautiful interview full of dance and fabulous aesthetics. I hope you enjoyed it and here I leave your social networks to check more closely the wonderful of this artist.
Social media:
Instagram: @linaresdav