I WISH

I WISH presents the archetypal conflict between passion and self-preservation that arises during true intimacy, using movement to express the difficulty of maintaining a sense of self in the context of love which requires self-effacement. Ultimately, we are stretched too far and we have to choose: to love without living for ourselves, or to live for ourselves without love.

I WISH was choreographed and danced by Adriana Pierce and Eric Trope, corps dancers for the Miami City Ballet at the time of filming. The piece was inspired by a single from local band MY DEER. Though the world of professional dance may be isolating at times, passion projects such as this allow for cross-medium collaboration and creative production that supersedes genre.

Director Alejandro Gonzalvez is a long-time Miamian. Gonzalvez saw the film as an opportunity to capture chemistry and movement around the beautiful, aching city that the trio call home. He works best with shadow and light, contrasting vibrant colors of mid-afternoon in the Art Deco district with the more refined hues of the studio. Though his protagonists remain unsure, spinning in and out of focus, Gonzalvez makes it clear that one character is incapable of losing its identity: the city itself.