About the project:

I was told not to make eye contact with Tom Cruise is based on an autofictional narrative that investigates the figure of the film extra. It is a gaze toward what is almost always placed at the margins. This work poetically reveals the sadness hidden behind what we do not see.

To be an extra is, above all, to be a witness. But can one be a witness to something if that thing does not exist?

The project emerges from a prior research period, Mucha mierda, developed at CCA El Corralito במסגרת the TNT festival. Based on an autofictional account, it offered a retrospective of the scenic peripeteia that takes disguise as a symbol not only of role assumption, but also as a synonym for erasure and the blurring of one’s own self and body. A satire on failure, enthusiasm, and invisibility.

About the creator:

Elena Carvajal is a dancer and choreographer based in Barcelona. She graduated in 2014 from the contemporary dance program at the Centro Andaluz de Danza and the Conservatorio Antonio Ruiz Soler in Seville. In 2019, she completed a Master’s degree in Choreography and Performance at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (ARBA-ESA) and ISAC (Institut Supérieur des Arts et Chorégraphie) in Brussels. She is currently continuing her training in Fasciatherapy at the Body Mind Academy in Belgium.

Her artistic practice moves between choreography and installation, exploring the dialogue between space, movement, light, sound, language, and imagination to create scenic landscapes. She is interested in shared practices and the poetic potential of the body and space.

As a performer, she has collaborated with artists such as Gisèle Vienne, Dora García, Fabián Barba, and Esteban Donoso, among others. Since 2020, she has been developing her work together with Fran Martínez, with whom she has created pieces such as Realmente ahora no ya no and Somaficción. She also collaborates regularly with RosanayAris, Maite Álvarez, and Neus Masd.