\n<\/p>\n
Jalet, who choreographed Luca Guadagnino\u2019s horror movie \u201cSuspiria,\u201d knew Salda\u00f1a only from the movie \u201cAvatar.\u201d When he discovered \u201cCenter Stage,\u201d he grasped that she would take movement seriously. \u201cIt was such an amazing relief to feel that, \u201cOh, she\u2019s a dancer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the original conception, Salda\u00f1a had just one dance scene: Rita walks through a crowd in an open-air market, building a defense for the courtroom as her hands and arms slice through the air with emphatic intensity. \u201cIn this first scene, she\u2019s rough,\u201d Jalet said. \u201cShe has instinct. You recognize gesture, you recognize her power. But it\u2019s also sent in many directions. And there is something not so sharp about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jalet fought for more opportunities to choreograph for Salda\u00f1a, to show her character\u2019s growth. He wanted to make a dance in which she would fully explode and discover a space of freedom. That happens in \u201cEl Mal,\u201d set in a ballroom at a gala<\/a>, where she confronts the wealthy hypocrites in the room. Wearing a red velvet suit, her hair slicked back in a low ponytail, she\u2019s defiant as she interprets lines like \u201chad his partner\u2019s throat slit,\u201d with an arm striking forward and her fingers in the shape of scissors.<\/p>\n As Salda\u00f1a makes her way among the tables, her body moves with force, spinning, strutting, consumed by confidence. Her hips swirl; her limbs shoot out like swords. \u201cShe\u2019s a killer,\u201d Jalet said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the thing \u2014 I wanted to use dance in that film like a tool of resistance, like a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n And Salda\u00f1a\u2019s weapon, not just as Rita but in all of her roles, is the intelligence of her body \u2014 a body of passion and articulation whether seen or only felt.<\/p>\n Jalet said he could feel that dance was Salda\u00f1a\u2019s first love.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>When you start as a dancer, you think as a dancer the rest of your life,\u201d he said. \u201cWith dance, it\u2019s like Sisyphus. You can have an amazing show, and the next day you have to start from scratch. You go through physical pain, you go through exhaustion, and there\u2019s always this thing that it\u2019s you. There\u2019s this vulnerability that you bring, a level of power and vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n Salda\u00f1a\u2019s performance is proof: You can\u2019t hide from your first love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n