The word norma began in Latin as the term for a square tool utilized by carpenters and builders. Over time, on its etymological journey, the meaning shifted to encompass rule, model, directive, decree, or behavioral guideline. The body of laws that structured and shaped Roman society laid the foundations for modern normative frameworks and the civil codes of Europe. 

Nowadays, from the legacy of Roman thought, we continue to believe that norms lay the groundwork of our societies, directing how individuals and groups act and interact. And while the role of norms in the fabric of social life has been a focal point for generations, the concept of the normative also carries with it a paradox, the implicit idea of inclusion or exclusion from its framework. 

NORMA offers a thoughtful critique of the notion of normality, exploring identity interaction through the lens of the body. In our globalized world, the body is portrayed as both an image and a product, while the classical paradigm persists in our psyche like an ancient and powerful specter from the past. We become captives of systems where facades and charm are paramount, and authenticity is quelled. This results in categorization, comparison, shame, and the introduction of new prejudices, stereotypes, discriminations, and stigmas. Ultimately, it’s 

a plethora of bodies displayed from either a central or marginal perspective, where norms challenge diversity, prompting new queries: How do we perceive ourselves? What makes us feel normal to others? Aren’t we all, without exception, unique and remarkable beings? 

In our increasingly mixed, complex, and fast-paced contemporary cultures, it seems crucial to be ‘in’ with what’s deemed normal —a dynamic that hints at 

underlying tensions in our identity constructs: insider/outsider; acceptance/ rejection... and further, privilege or marginalization. This project embarks on

an exploration from the symbolic dimension of the body: fragments of bodies, bodies in dance, the mutilated body, the differently-abled body, the migrant body, the cross-dressed body, the bionic body, the body-animal. Bodies, simply put. 

Ruz’s approach is akin to a roving camera moving from body to body, from one form of flesh to another, blurred and uncentered, delving into these subjects by challenging the mysteries of beauty and ideas of order, system, regularity, uniformity, certainty, equilibrium, and symmetry. These are contrasted with ugliness, disproportion, disorder, chaos, deviation from the norm, excess, distortion, and lack. By distorting, altering, and twisting the form, he invites the audience to confront their own reflection in the mirror of diverse identities. 

Utilizing theatrical techniques such as choreography, where singularity becomes multiplicity, spoken words and singing, an acoustic setting that blends analog with digital, showy set designs, dynamic playwriting, mutating costumes, and an atmosphere that is both dreamy and sublime, NORMA generates a visual poetry in constant flux and vibration where contrast conveys both strength and delicacy. A scenic ritual of five diverse bodies organized around the opposition between the normative and the different, the everyday and the bizarre, the common and the unexpected, the beautiful and the ugly. A dystopian fantasy of resistance to normality through color, light, skin, irony, and surrealism. It’s a plea for individuality, exotism and queerness. The celebration of oddity.