Helen Achauer is a Cuban, Austrian dancer and choreographer who recently released her latest short film AMADA which is a celebration of female pleasure and sexuality. I had the chance to sit down and talk to her about her work and what inspires her to create. We were also joined by Tamara Dornelas who was the dancer in AMADA - I spoke to her about her process and what she did to get into character for this role. 

MR: What inspired you to explore female eroticism in your short film AMADA? 

HA: Um, well, to be honest, I think it all started with my obsession with Gaspar Noé. I don't know if you know him, but he directed the movies Enter the Void, Love, and Climax which he is obviously very famous for.

He's very raw and portrays sexuality in a very masculine way but it's still very real and he's always someone I reference when creating, but I still felt that female sexuality from the female perspective was missing. I’m not saying AMADA is in any way like Love or Climax, Amada isn’t as explicit, but it was kind of my take on it. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to do a little bit more with it because I really want to show sexuality and eroticism from a woman's perspective. I want it to be real - real bodies, real women and real experiences, not the two minute orgasm you see in films or the fast satisfaction. 

AMADA is also a little autobiographical, it took me a while to fully embrace my sensuality and my sexuality - knowing what I wanted and what I didn’t want, and having the confidence to be open about it. There's still a taboo when it comes to female sexuality and I think everyone should talk about it more and be free to explore it, especially women. 

MR: Yeah, I totally agree and you can see it in the way eroticism is done from a male perspective vs a female perspective, it's always so different. When it's done from a male gaze it's usually more aggressive, whereas when it's done from a woman's gaze it tends to be sensual and slow.

HA: Exactly and with AMADA I really wanted it to speak to all the senses - AMADA is about feeling, tasting, smelling but women are also into more aggressive sex too. I think there's a full spectrum, so we just have to embrace all of it. There's also another part, from the male perspective - especially in porn I think sex can be a very violent and very dominant thing - there's a lot of gagging strangling, slapping, cursing or talking down to a woman. And I think there's also another way of doing it. I think we need to go away from that very macho, very toxic, filled perspective. 

MR: Your piece is very sensory, as soon as the music starts playing, you're just sort of pulled into this world. Right away you're drawn in, from the sound of the cigarette burning, the tinkling of the piano and filters you used like the green light, which almost gives the viewer consent to view AMADA. I also really loved the flashing imagery of the vulva in some of the scenes - there was also a lot of symbolism in this piece, was that really important to you when you were creating AMADA? 

HA: Well, some of them, I have to admit, it kind of came up through post-production. I spoke with Tamara a lot throughout this process because it was very important to me that she felt comfortable enough to be sensual. And I told her, you know, you're doing this for yourself, you’re not sexy, you’re sensual and it's your own experience - whether that means that you’re on your own, maybe her lover just left or she’s just gotten back from the club. I really wanted to keep it open, I didn’t want to specify anything about who she was. 

The strobing added more of a mystery and when it comes to symbolism, I hope I don't sound like a cliché, but I think the body of a woman is generally very symbolic - we give birth and then, our breasts feed our children - that was always in the back of my mind. Then during the shoots, we used crystals in front of the camera and then in post-production, I was working with Angela, my editor, and we had a split screen where we basically had Tamara in frame with a crystal. It created this mirrored hypnotic image that became that symbol of the vulva which was unintentional, it was like magic. 

MR: I guess that plays into the whole magic of, you know, women working together and the magic you can create. 

HA: Absolutely, even with Tamara when she auditioned she was working on another project for me, where we were looking for a ballet dancer. Unfortunately that project didn't work out and then, AMADA was slowly coming together in my mind and I was looking for a girl who looked slightly innocent. Tamara is a ballet dancer, and I find that ballet dancers have that quality because they are like swans and are very ethereal. Tamara is also Brazilian and she has that fire and that energy that is a little bit hidden which I really liked, and that was exactly the character that I was looking for, for AMADA.

T: I remembered that you were looking for a fragile, but also sensual woman. 

HA: Exactly. I never wanted to lose that fragility and she has that naturally. I remember during shooting I made Tamara improvise, which is the green strobing image that you see. That's one my favourite takes out of everything. I remember telling Tamara “okay, now you just have to let go, forget about ballet, forget about all your training and just dance”. Just give it your all and lose yourself. And it's by far my favourite take.

MR: Tamara how did you get into this character when you were exploring who this person was - her backstory, how she’s going to move, what sensuality was to her? 

T: So, Helen sent me a lot of images and videos of women being sensual, but not overtly. I didn't want to make something that wasn't me and struggle to be sensual and fragile. It was actually really hard for me at the beginning, I didn’t know how to combine those two. 

But Helen told me that she saw it in me and knew I could do it. I was still a little unsure but in the end, I just put a lot of my own experiences in it - experiences from guys I had been with and the love I had experienced. I was just trying to give Helen what she was asking for by using some of my personal experiences.

As a ballet dancer, I was asking for perfection but when she told me, you don’t have to do that you can do whatever you want I was actually freaking out because I didn’t know how I was going to do that. I didn’t know if it was going to look good so I was putting so much pressure on myself. But then when she put the music on and the strobe light, I was okay. I felt so good, it was like I wasn’t myself, I felt so free - like an out of body experience and it was amazing. 

HA: I remember you really lost yourself in that moment. She really let it out which is what I wanted from her and I remember looking around and everyone was like, okay, we got this

MR: I love that. There have been times in the past when I've choreographed a piece and then put it on a different body and it becomes something else, something better than what you had in mind. So yeah, I absolutely love that. The magic of transference of your vision and how our bodies interpret movement and emotive actions.  

I also love the fact that this piece was created by women because oftentimes in the dance world our bodies are tools for male choreographers to tell their stories with. I love the fact that you didn't have a male lead and it was entirely about the woman in the piece - was this intentional? 

HA: Absolutely. I think it's such a funny or an interesting phenomenon because it's a female art. There are so many women in dance, but still there are more male choreographers than female choreographers. I was a dancer in London for five years, and I always wondered, of course there are female choreographers and they're fantastic but most of my jobs came from men and I never really understood where all those talented women disappeared to. So, I made an effort of working with only women, because again, it was important to me if I'm talking about a female subject from the female perspective, then I want to work with women. I don't want to even hear the input of a man, not because I'm sexist, it's just because it already exists. So I wanted to surround myself with women and I got lots of different perspectives, from the sort of lingerie that we used on the shoot which was also from a female designer and the jewellery too. Everyone gave me a little piece and a little opinion on things like colours and how to do things. And I thought it was so enriching and so empowering and everyone spoke about their experiences with sexuality and sensuality on their own or with their partners and it really brought a lot more to AMADA. 

It's a different kind of energy, even in the film industry there are a lot of men - I have never been on a set where there were more women than men or set with only women.

MR: Even when you did Charlie's Angels?

HA: In Charlie's Angels, the choreographer was male. I was the assistant choreographer to Arthur Pita who I adore. The director, Elizabeth Banks, was female, obviously but everyone else to be honest, like the team, the crew was mainly male. 

Even in theatre, you know, I worked in the Royal Opera House and it was mostly male directors, male choreographers, male Creative Heads of Departments - except for makeup and costuming. That of course motivated me to have a talented female in front of the camera and then talented women doing a film about women because I know that we can do the same, it's just that women sometimes don't get the opportunity to.

MR: That's so true, like when I think about some of the biggest Dance Companies in the world the majority of them are male lead.

HA: Yeah, even Theatre Directors and Opera Directors are usually all male. I don't have anything against men, it's just the fact that it's always been a man. It was very, very important to me to be able to say AMADA was female led from A to Z. There were no men involved and we made a very beautiful film. 

MR: Female pleasure and sex positivity is something we champion here at The C Word Magazine - do you think there needs to be more of focus on female pleasure and sexuality from the female perspective? 

HA: Absolutely. You know, it's getting a lot better for sure. There are a lot more female directors and women talking about the importance of female pleasure - there are porn sites now made by women, for women, but I think it's still very male dominated, there are also female directors who still portray women from the male gaze. We should be able to at least be authentic about certain topics and stop romanticising everything, women don’t cum every time they sleep with someone, I think that's absolutely mad.

I would love to see something similar to Gaspar Noés work but from the female perspective and directed by a woman highlighting real female pleasure from her perspective, her experiences, you know, I really, really want to see that.

MR: Yeah. I would love that. We need to stop silencing women because men talk about sex all the time and we need to be able to discuss it openly too without feeling like we’re being judged or slut shamed.

HA: Yeah, I like porn as well. Women don't really talk about porn, you know, and we should be a little bit more open about it. I also think there needs to be more porn for women. Porn always portrays women being silenced, dominated, gagged - normalising violence against women. We need more substance. 

MR: I absolutely agree. Where do you get your inspiration to create?

HA: As a Choreographer or as a Director, it's always the people I work with. So for this project, it was Tamara. I like to look at the actor or the dancer and get inspiration from them.

I don't like to impose too much, even when it comes to choreography, because I think everyone has their own movement language and if I want it to look authentic, I need to work with that instead of just imposing my movement language on them. 

MR: I absolutely agree. I've always said that everybody can dance, they just have to find their beat. 

HA: Yeah, exactly. And you know, I can’t move like Tamara so when we came up with the choreography it was very collaborative, I think.

T: Yeah 

HA: There were no counts she just had to feel through the movement - I didn’t want her to overthink everything too much and you know when you fuck up mistakes are visible and I didn’t want that. That was never the purpose of this piece - it was beyond the counts. So, I think most of my inspiration really comes from the person I'm working with. 

You can tell a lot from someone's movement and how they look at you and how they talk about you. Tamara was a little bit shy in the beginning, but I could always tell there was a fire and a spark that I had to get to and then once I got there, it was overflowing and beautiful. I also get a lot of inspiration from going out. I love going to a club or a rave and standing in the back of the club, watching other people dance. It's incredibly inspiring because when people are in darkness and a little bit drunk or high, whatever they’re into, they forget about everything and they just move so beautifully. Everyone dances to the beat and you have this collective energy - I have seen some of the best dancing in clubs in Berlin for example and everyone's so lost and it's such an individual experience because everyone's usually dancing for themselves, it's amazing. 

That's my favourite thing to do and I always go home with a story after nights out. 

MR: I love that. One of my favourite things is spotting a person in the crowd dancing like nobody's watching - there's always that one person who is just wild and you're drawn to them and it's just like, I have to dance with you.

HA: Yeah. I call them unicorns, there's always that person on the dance floor who sparkles and is really unapologetic and just so much fun. You can really see that energy that they are so in tune with themselves, like they don't care who's watching they're just listening to the music and enjoying themselves and forgetting about everything else. I like to observe them and then take that and turn it into something different. 

Tamara had that in AMADA. So when I told her, let go, let go, and just improvise, she was able to dive into that. And I think, again, for me, it's the most beautiful take because then suddenly it was Tamara in her most authentic self, you know, without the whole, oh, is this going to look pretty or not or am I doing this right or not? You know, she was just being herself. 

MR: You have worked in so many industries such as film, music videos and stage, what advice would you give to a young dancer trying to break into those industries?

HA: I think that all are very similar because they’re all creative industries. I think it is very important to hold onto your integrity - don’t lose it. Especially nowadays with Instagram followers, certain beauty standards and having to sell yourself in a way that you might not feel comfortable with. That happened to me a lot during my time in London, it made me question whether this was something I wanted to be a part of and why I was doing it. I understand money is always an issue and it is important - we all do things for money just to survive so we can pay the rent because a girl's gotta eat but, there are certain projects I wouldn’t do anymore and I think that comes with age. There needs to be a little bit of substance and if something is not good enough then I’m not going to be a part of that project. So to all young dancers, I say, you have to do what you have to do but don’t sell your soul and don’t lose your integrity. Don't do a project just for exposure or whatever, find something that pleases you and not just others because it’s not going to make you happy - you’ll leave feeling empty, abused and disappointed. 

Disappointment  is never a good feeling, especially when it comes from your passion. So don't lose your integrity and stick to your principles. I would also say resilience is important - a lot of resilience, don't let people tell you what you can and cannot be. Coming from Ballet, we are trained to swallow our pride, nod and smile a lot and we need to stop that. That's all bullshit.

I recently did a fashion film for a designer who had three models and one of the models was a beautiful black female model and when we started editing, the designer was telling me that her hair is too big, her features are too strong, her breasts are too big - she was horrible. She obviously had a problem with that black female model. It came to a point where I felt so wrong that I dropped it. I was never paid for that project. I put in a lot of work, but I was like, I'm not going to cut her out because you have a problem with her race.

MR: Wow, I applaud you for that. 

HA: So, I've lost money, but at least I can go to bed with a clean concious, you know, and you are put in that position as a director, many times, especially dealing with clients. So speak up and say, no, you need to be vocal and say no, I'm not going to engage in that, you can't talk about a woman like that.

MR: Can you tell me a little bit more about your recent project Entre Portas? 

HA: So, it's an immersive piece about domestic abuse. I created it last December and I was very lucky to get a residency with a company here in Lisbon. This is a subject that I'm very passionate about because during Covid the numbers of domestic abuse rose substantially and so many women have died in Austria, a couple of weeks ago a woman was set on fire by her boyfriend and the other day, a woman was shot by her ex husband.

Women are being murdered and they have to live through these atrocities locked in a house with no escape. I was actually in Berlin when I saw an advertisement about domestic abuse and that's where it kind of clicked.

I had this idea about an immersive piece about domestic abuse and how it always happens behind closed doors and I thought about bringing the audience into a house where you get to experience what these women go through. 

So the audience is in a house locked in with a couple and there is a lot of love, but then the vale falls and you see there's also a lot of abuse. I find that many people never understand what these people are going through and always question why the person never leaves. I did so much research and I found out that it takes a woman about eight attempts to really leave someone because when you're in love, you know, it’s not that black and white. It's so easy to say you need to leave, but it's more complex than that because usually there's also a lot of love and obviously sometimes there are children involved, family ties or finances. Finances are usually a big issue because not everyone has the luxury to leave. It's a very scary thing to do. 

I really wanted to create that feeling of suffocation and empathy. I wanted to show what these women go through - it's not just domestic abuse 24/7 for these women, you know. Life is good or manageable  sometimes but then there will be that one moment where everything changes. Obviously in the end, the woman leaves, so there is a happy ending - it was a very emotional experience. It was touching and insightful because I did so much research and most of the time I was left speechless by the experiences of these women and what they had to go through.

They start out happy in their relationship and then eight years down the line, it's like, how did you get here? How the hell did this happen? 

MR: Yeah, I absolutely loved this piece. I like the juxtaposition between the lovemaking and the scenes where he's physically abusing her.

HA: But that's really it, you know, there are so many stories that I read or documentaries that I watched where women were like, I love that, man. We shared so much.

MR: I agree with what you're saying and I think you showed that really well in your piece because there were the moments when they were having these intimate moments you know, they were so in love and then there were the moments where it was the opposite of that and even the name of the piece as well, which translates to Between Doors - which I think is beautiful. 

HA: Yeah, it was funny. It started with Behind Closed Doors, but then I realised that it's actually about being between leaving and staying, which is the main part for most women. Many leave and then they come back and then it's just, this game of in and out and living between doors. So it was more fitting than behind closed doors. 

MR: Yeah because it's like she's in between those doors on one side of the door, it's like love and affection they have for each other and on the other side it’s the pain that he causes her but then if you look at it another way it's like, leaving and staying - like what happens if I leave, it's unknown, whereas if I stay I have all of this, but I have to deal with this other thing, you know. So there are so many sides to this piece, it’s not black and white or easy - I absolutely love the piece. 

HA: Thank you very much. It was such a tough process for me and my dancers as well, especially for the guy, because he's not aggressive at all, but he's an amazing actor. But it was a challenge to get to that place, to make him understand why he's doing certain things because for me, again, it had to be very authentic and he had to love her like crazy and then also hate her, maybe not hate but despise her enough to hit her too. Just to clarify it doesn't happen in the piece like people don't see it but we hear it and it is implied. He had a hard time coming out of the character by the end of the run. 

MR: Do you have any other projects lined up for this year?

HA: Yeah. Um, well, Entre Portas has not been performed yet because of Covid and it was meant to be performed here in Lisbon but then they went into lockdown. So, I'm hoping we’re able to perform it in June.

And then I have my other baby, which I started last year, which is a documentary about the elderly in three different countries - Portugal, Cuba, and Austria, and how they are dealing with the isolation of the past year.

We have shot the part in Portugal already, which was my partner's grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer and she's been taken care of by her family. And then we're going to go to Cuba for a month to shoot my grandmother who is very independent and sassy as fuck. We will go to Austria probably in the autumn or winter. 

There’s a also a short film or potentially a short series about a young boy in a Fishermen community or Fisher town in Portugal and it's basically about toxic masculinity and sexuality.

I'm very fascinated by that whole thing, the dynamics of men and young men and how they have to prove themselves and it's kind of like a series that I developed over the last few weeks and I'm hoping to be able to start the process of it, because that is something I would love to explore.  

MR: Do you feel like the deep rooted tradition in Classical Ballet has slowly begun shifting with more Ballet Companies experimenting with more contemporary dance styles? 

T: Yeah, I think they are. I think people always expect just classical ballets and new directors are totally different. They are making changes to the image of ballet by bringing in young choreographers and I think it’s amazing, I think things have to change, life is changing. Classical Ballet will never be forgotten because it’s traditional but I think it's an amazing opportunity for other dancers because they can show much more and they don’t have to fit in that box that of having to be classical, tall, skinny and really delicate - I think it's amazing.  

HA: I definitely agree that things are changing and I'm also very happy to see more and more contemporary choreographers taking over Ballet companies and showing them a different perspective and a different way of working. And I think it's also, as Tamara said, very liberating for classical ballet dancers to move differently and to explore different kinds of movements because it's so structured and there is little room to play with. Obviously someone could interpret Giselle differently to another dancer, you know, there is that freedom, but you have to do those steps at that time, at those angles, in that moment, wearing those costumes and it's been like this for a hundred years and, again, it's about perfection.

It's that constant pursuit of more pirouettes, higher legs, higher jumps and I think it's healthy to not necessarily move away but to add - so in addition to this, there's also this and I think it's a very healthy mindset. However, I think, there's still a lot of work to do still, in the ballet world it's still very structured and very traditional, you know, when it comes to hierarchy and how people move up the ranks and also I think when it comes to skin colour it's still not there yet. I don't just want to see two dancers who are darker, I want to see more. There are still some companies that are still very traditional and feel like you can't have a black dancer in Swan Lake because they will stand out. 

MR: I remember growing up dancing and I could never find slippers or pointe shoes in my skin tone and I'd have to wear pink tights too, it made me feel out of place - like a burden. Do you think that openness has also trickled down to other aspects of Ballet, like the uniformity of it and the so-called Ballet Blanc dances from the 19th Century? 

HA: I hope so. I think it's up to the theaters, it's up to the Director to make those decisions. I know for a fact that there are many companies still out there who don't do that because it's too much work because they feel people of colour stand out too much and that it's not aesthetically pleasing.

It's a visual experience and to work with the main ballet here, which is Swan Lake, if you have one black dancer standing in those rows, they feel like she's going to “stand out” and I feel like it’s not a problem and I don't think anyone's going to care - but they care and they’re the ones who have the problem.

It's really saddening and it's still surprising that ballet shoes, dark ballet shoes only exist now, and it's very, very recent - I'm Latina, and as a child, I didn't have shoes in my skin tone, I also had to wear pink shoes and tights. I had ballet in Austria, so you can imagine everyone was blonde around me and I would always get the roles of the baddies because I was darker, it sometimes worked to my benefit, but sometimes it was also a bit like, why do I have to be an extra, I can also just be part of the group.

It is changing, but it's very much up to the companies to make those decisions and to be comfortable with making those changes and to stand up and say no, we casted her because she's good. I think people need to look at the talent of the dancer, not the skin tone or any other racial aspect, that's what’s important. We also have girls in the ballet studio and in ballet schools being let in, which is a huge step in the right direction - 10 years ago these companies wouldn’t let them in because they didn’t think they were “right” for their company.  When I was young growing up in Cuba there were many black girls who would say, I'm not going to go ballet class because I know that I would never make it - not because they lack talent, but because of their skin colour. In Cuba that was a very big aspect of Alicia Alonso and her company. And it was, it was very clear that you had to be lighter skinned -olive skin was okay but anything darker than that you would probably not make it. For men it was different, but for women, it was difficult, there would never be a black Giselle. There is still a lot of work to do. 

T: Yeah. I think it also comes from schools like, we grow up thinking, I'm not good enough or not skinny enough, or I don't have the body or the look. I think it's also a problem that it would change if these schools changed the way that they taught their students.

HA: I think as well, that the ideal look in ballet, in classical ballet, is still the Russian dancer but just by genetics, the rest of the world is so far from them. I will never be one 175 or 180 with incredibly long legs and blonde hair and pale and still I feel that's still very much the ideal. I remember growing up, looking up to Russian ballet dancers and thinking, oh my God, like, it's so unattainable, but they were the stars, you know? Like Natalia Osipova or Svetlana Zakharova they were so far away from me physically and I think the ballet world, we just need to change and go away from that, they're beautiful but the Brazilian dancer, who may be a bit more muscular and smaller is just as gorgeous and talented. It's just different, you know? 

MR: Yeah and that's why a lot of those dancers end up joining contemporary dance companies because usually it’s to do with not just their race, but also their body type. You have to have this specific body type, but if you don’t you’re not given a second look but the thing is a lot of black women, Latin women and Hispanic women tend to have a more of a muscular frame because of muscle density so you're not always going look the way they want you to unless you take drastic measures - a really unhealthy lifestyle.

Ha: Exactly.

HA: I do remember when I was at ballet school, I had a booty and I could lose as much weight as I wanted but I would always have a booty and I was always criticised for that. It was always so annoying because you know, there was only so much I could do and I worked so hard but there were some positives to having a booty because it helped me with my jumps, I was always a great jumper.

If we change that and we're a little bit more embracive of all body types, I think it’ll be healthier for everyone. And I have to admit, I also turned my back on classical ballet a little bit because of that. I was sick of hearing constantly that my legs were too short and my feet were not pointed enough and that my booty was too big so I turned to contemporary dance and felt freedom, I loved it. 

MR: I do still love ballet and I always will, but yeah, I do agree there's more freedom in contemporary dance.

HA: Yeah, I love ballet. It's also such a great workout, even as a contemporary dancer and I still love watching ballet and I think it's very beautiful, like a Monet or a Picasso - I can always watch it. But then for my own sanity, I have to say that contemporary dance gave me the freedom and the possibility to kind of create my own movement language and be authentic to myself because I always tried to fit in and it was never good enough.

In contemporary dance, you have the possibility of making it your own whereas in ballet, there's only so much you can do, everything has to be performed a certain way - with the costumes, angles and specific makeup. 

MR: Who’s your favourite Contemporary choreographer and why? 

HA: There are so many. Um, I'm going to start with, of course, a female choreographer, Crystal Pite, who is absolutely amazing. She has a way of capturing emotions so naturally and her movements are surreal and liquid. And then I have to say Arthur Pita, who was the choreographer I worked with on Charlie's Angels and he will always be my mentor. I love the way he works with dancers; it's more dance theatre. I had my first job in London with him as a dancer, I was young and straight out of school. I learned so much from him as an artist, as a choreographer and director - he taught me how to treat people, how to build characters, how to build pieces, how to choose the right music and design my sets. I learned the most with him and he was always incredibly inspiring to me. Um, and my third one has to be Sidi Larbi who is also a very organic choreographer. It's very spiritual and when I watch his pieces, it's an experience because of his choice of music and how he brings out a certain quality in each of his dancers - I always feel like they are moving the way they should be moving, the movement doesn’t look or feel forced. 

T: Right now I would say my favourite choreographer is Juliano Nunes, a new choreographer from Brazil. I really like the way that he creates - he has a style I’ve never seen before. I had the pleasure of working with Renato Zanella, the way that he works, it's really nice - he's a genius. I really like the way that he draws out our characters, he talks to you and shows you interviews and videos to help you understand your character. I grew a lot working with him, I was like a sponge just taking everything in. When you get to work with someone who you admire it gives you the opportunity to take everything in and learn from them. 

HA: What about yours Mary? I would love to know. 

MR: Oh gosh, there are so many. Um, Mats Ek has always been one of my favourite choreographers because I am such a huge fan of pedestrian movement and taking movement from everyday life and transposing it into movement in order to tell a story. I also love and admire Pina Bausch - she is someone who I learnt a lot from watching her work, her work always made a statement. Lastly I would say Michael Clark, watching his work was like an awakening. He inspires me and I will never forget the first time I watched Kate Coyne perform Heroin by The Velvet Underground covered in syringes.  

Your work tends to focus on human experiences and values, do you get inspiration from your own lived experiences? 

HA: Yeah, there's certainly an autobiographical aspect to all my work but I can’t say all of my work is  because I have not, luckily, experienced domestic abuse for example, but there's a lot of my family or my mother in, in that piece - from how the dancers dressed and the red lipstick and I didn’t even notice at first until my partner pointed it out to me. And with AMADA when it came out, so many people thought it was me or me and another dancer - I didn't even realise that I picked a dancer that looked so much like me but when I look at Tamara, we are very similar. We have long dark curls and we have a similar skin tone and it was not intentional. I do find myself taking inspiration from my mother and other women in my life because they have a lot of character. I think this is something I learnt from Almodovar who is one of my favourite directors.

MR: Oh, yes, Pedro.  I love Pedro Almodovar too! He is amazing, Todo Sobre Mi Madre is one of my favourite movies of his. 

HA: Yes and Volver is excellent and he is a big, big inspiration. I think I was 15 or 16 years old when I fell madly in love with Pedro Almodovar and I remember watching an interview where he said, he uses his own story, his family and mother a lot and I think I kept that with me which is why my mum is a big reference and has been throughout my career. I used her name for characters as well as her look or mannerisms, so my mum is a big inspiration. 

MR: Name three things you can’t do without?

HA: I have to start with my social network of course - my relationships with my friends, my partner and my family. I find them very inspiring and they support me madly, they've really helped me - they believe in me and in my vision and in my work and I would not be able to do anything without them. The women I work with are also part of that network, like the women that were in this piece, we all became friends.

And then, Red lipstick definitely. Not only for aesthetic reasons, but because it's symbolic, it represents my mum, my Cuban family, my roots and me. I always have red lipstick on because it makes me feel like a woman - I feel gutsy and powerful. 

Lastly I would say art in all its forms, whether it's a book or a painting, music, dancing, film - anything creative. I am like a sponge. I soak everything up and it keeps me going and that's what nurtures me and my mind and keeps me sane as well.

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You can follow Helen here and Tamara here.