Vania Masías opens her heart: did she hate her body? How much did the drama of her students affect you? What a sacrifice she made and more

More than two years ago, the founder of the D1 Cultural Association began the “enormous challenge” of writing an autobiographical book at the initiative of the Penguin Random House editorial team. Much of her post was written during her last pregnancy. It was a process that allowed her to look at her personal history: “what she lived, what she learned, what she hurt and what she enjoyed”.

“Since I’m not a writer, mIt drew a lot of attention that they chose me. I began to write a narrative of specific events that did not trigger anything in me. I was unmotivated, bored; but thanks to the support of my editor, Mayte Mujica, I understood that the only way to make sense of all this was by feeling what I had lived through, pouring my emotions and feelings into the lines I wrote.”, he narrates.

Masías Málaga is the only woman in a family of four brothers. As a child, her father called her ‘Culebra’ affectionately, because of the great and endless energy she had from her. And although she got involved with ballet to satisfy her parents, over time dance became her way of speaking, her language and tool of life. Her ballet limited him, but at the same time gave her the tools to believe in herself. She gave her the physical strength and technique she needed to explore other dances and find more freedom.

─Did it cost you to open up to make this book?

It was more difficult for me at the beginning, during the narration of specific events. I was bored. But when instead of narrating I began to relive moments that marked me, like the day I danced in Piazza Brunelleschi in front of the Duomo, everything began to flow and move me.

─ Are you telling something that you have never told?

Yes. I’m talking about the whole physical issue, the whole part about eating problems, also about an operation I had. They were strong things for me. Only my husband and my parents knew about them.

─Are you referring to the operation to reduce the fat on your legs, the one you mention in the chapter “The end does not justify the means”?

That’s how it is. I grew up hating my legs because they were so wide, thick, heavy, and I didn’t look good in the tutu. It was the opportunity to change them and I accepted. She was 16 years old.

─What motivated you to tell it in a book?

I decided to talk about it because I constantly see how the issue of the physical prototype is affecting girls a lot.

─ Do you still think that to be successful in ballet you need to have skinny legs?

In classical ballet, yes, because certain standards are sought. But, for example, jazz dancers had thicker legs than mine, but the same or much more power. Today I can tell you that you don’t need to have skinny legs to dance. I began to adore my legs, to find love in their strength, instead of a problem.

At the age of 25, Masías Málaga managed to be the prima ballerina of the Irish ballet and in 2005 was selected to be part of Cirque du Soleil after auditions in London. She made the dream of working in what she loved come true, until one day, back at her house after a rehearsal at the Municipal Theater, an encounter with young acrobats at the traffic light changed her life forever. She left ballet and formed D1, a space for healing through dance. A space in which art would be revalued as that magical process, that place of connection with that truth that hurts, but heals.

─Was it a great sacrifice to leave ballet at the best moment of your career?

They raised me with an excessive love for Peru. My life plan was to stay until I was 35 years old in Europe and then return to implement something related to the social here because I believe that if you have been lucky enough to have a good education, your role is to give back what you learned. What I did not think is that it would be so long in advance. It was a very big sacrifice; but there was something that was stronger: a connection with instinct, with the essential part. And that is what I try to explain in the book. I’m not going to lie to you, it still hurts me to have left my dance. To this day I have a hard time watching ballet. There is a pain related to that still, but I think that the other compensates so much that this was like disappearing.

─Was it a self-critical or compassionate writing process?

Both, because I’m quite a perfectionist and self-critical, but I think that in the book process I had to be very compassionate.

─Is it true that you got so involved with the cases of your students and with that need to help in any way that you plunged into an abyss from which it was difficult for you to get out?

At that time I was very upset with the world, I felt helpless seeing so much inequality that I began to reject where it came from. My instincts led me to get into trouble, and, yes, I got so into it that it started to hurt me. I went into a very strong depression -which I tell in my book-. At times I did not want to live. Anxiety levels were very high and I couldn’t see a way out. There was an ocean of need, and I had convinced myself that I had to help anyway. I lost faith in humanity.

─How did you manage to get out of that abyss? Who rescued you?

I had to learn to protect myself and take care of myself. I surrounded myself with people who did me a lot of good. Here comes my story with Eric (her husband of hers). He really was the one who helped me. That is why I always say that life does not stop being a cycle. He came into my life as a gift from the Universe, from God or whatever. It was a reward for everything he had been doing.

─And not only did he help you find the strength to carry on, he also imparted his love of salsa to you, as you recount in your book.

(laughs) That’s right. It was not a genre that I was unaware of, but I did not master it. We take salsa classes. It became our outing plan. Salsa has served us as couples therapy, nightlife and even as a plan with children during the pandemic (Laughs).

─You are an artistic director, dancer, choreographer and social entrepreneur. If you had to choose only one activity, which one would you prefer?

I think with artist because I am creative. Now I dedicate myself to creating creative concepts and not only with shows and shows, also on the social side. We are creating new ways of doing, of helping.

─With D1 you changed many lives, did it change yours too?

Of course. In other words, as you say, I think they are paths that one is taking if I had taken the path of not doing, of not founding and continuing with my line of career as I was doing in Europe, perhaps my life would be completely different. I never planned to start a school, it was never in my plans. I was not interested in doing a dance school, I was interested in doing a school of life, that gives emotional tools so that these kids can get ahead.

─The miniseries that Latina aired in 2013, “Guerreros de arena”, inspired by D1, did you also tell it?

I had nothing to do with that series. They did not behave very well, the relationship with the producer was never good. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even look at the scripts. They interviewed me, but there are things that are not related. I was very sorry because this story is unique and has enormous potential to make a good series or a documentary.

— How did you feel emotionally after writing your autobiography?

It’s really crazy, sometimes I open a chapter, read it and start crying. He stirs me up quite a bit. He also makes me very nervous about my family and friends reading it. I am afraid that it will be misunderstood because I have had a wonderful family. Writing an autobiography is very challenging and daring.

—What do you expect from “Dancing to transform your life”?

May it serve as a tool to give light and motivate people. I really hope that whoever finishes reading it feels motivated to achieve their dreams because everything that seems impossible is possible.

“Dance to transform your life” it is an honest delivery, it is a first impulse to go after one’s own dreams. It will be presented at the FIL this August 6, at 6:00 pm, in the Blanca Varela auditorium.