Interview with Teresa Hernández.

Teresa Hernández is a Puerto Rican stage artist. Since 1987 she has written, directed and performed contemporary theater and dance, both in Puerto Rico's commercial and experimental art scenes. Along with choreographer Viveca Vázquez, she directs and administers the Taller de Otra Cosa, Inc., a nonprofit organization committed to the development and production of experimental dance and performance projects. As a solo artist, she produces her work since 1991 through her organization Producciones Teresa, no Inc. She also offers workshops, talks and performance demonstrations for high school and college students. Teresa's creative projects are characterized by a consistent eschewing of traditional artistic categories. Theater, dance, performance, dramatic text, movement, costumes, video and everyday objects are juxtaposed and confronted, placed in a liminal space where notions of precariousness are explored and celebrated. Teresa's characters explore and expose the anxieties of everyday life in Puerto Rican society, transversally investigating issues of gender, class and race. In this interview, the artist talks about her coined term 'stage artist' (vis-à-vis 'performer', 'actress' or 'dancer') in the light of her multifaceted training and artistic trajectory. Teresa explains the role of the 'taller' (workshop) as a format and context for artistic creation. She talks about approximation, appropriation and precariousness as organizing coordinates of her artistic work. Hernández also discusses the creation and transformation of her characters, the use of costumes and everyday objects as stimuli for creation, the exploits of being an experimental artist in Puerto Rico, and her (at the time of the interview) upcoming project 'Nada Que Ver (Composiciones Escénicas Sobre el Yo)'. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics