HAU 1: 19th / 20th April, 7.30 pm
Dimenti
»A Mulher-Gorila« (The Gorilla Woman)
European Premier / Talk with the audience: 20th April, after the performance
In The Gorilla Woman, the category of gender, defined by the politically charged
concepts of “femininity” and “masculinity”, is the
focus of debate. The piece is a critique of the instrumentalist categorization
with which immutable gender characteristics are defined and identities established
and reduced to a supposed essence. By creating dissonance in the binary structure
of the relationship between “women” and “men”, this
work attempts to grasp different sensitivities and understand sexuality as
a historic and dynamic system.
While citing theories by Judith Butler and Michel Foucault, among others, the
work searches for the possibilities to reformulate/define questions of gender
with critique and parodies. Ballroom dancing, Hollywood musicals and animated
films are woven into this piece as choreographic threads. Originals and copies
become interchangeable, as do the stage and backstage, boys and girls. In sum,
these are polarizations in a practice of differentiation, in which the fundamentally
chaotic is supposed to be given an apparent order.
The Gorilla Woman was created in 2006 in the Ateliê de Coreógrafos
Barsileiros and was re-worked and updated by the members of the Dimenti (Bahia)
ensemble.
Dimenti
Founded in 1998, Dimenti (Salvador – Bahia) produces its own pieces
with a dance company of the same name as well as works by other groups. In
addition, Dimenti also works in the field of education. The group organizes
and realizes tours, workshops, discussions, exchange programs; they publish,
create documentary films and experimental videos in the form of dance and
theater projects as well as in the audio-visual realm.
Dimenti are working on the development of a poetic technology and securing
their repertoire. It encompasses various artistic languages and professions
in a variety of formats (dance, theater, music, literature, communication,
psychology).
In a majority of Dimenti’s works, they focus on interaction of different
media. Here the mechanisms of humor are a research tool for dance, for example
in the choreographic translation of literary works or the reflection of physicality
in animated films.
Significant aspects of the company’s research work are: a dramaturgic
approach that resembles a mosaic, a discontinued narrative, constant abrupt
change in physical states, the simultaneity of unrelated bodily action, a
confrontation with different subjects through the use of opposites and critical
comedy.
The dramaturgy is based on metaphoric associations and connections within
the texts. It thus creates unusual relationships and atypical contexts that
allow for more freedom of analysis as well as a re-interpretation of the
source material at hand.
Jorge Alencar
Jorge Alencar: is a dance and theatre
creator. Since 1998, when he founded the ensemble Dimenti (Salvador-Bahia),
he has been the artistic director of the ensemble. He studied communication
science at the catholic university of Salvador and dance and performing arts
at the state university of Bahia. His scenic and audiovisual work deals with
the topics of gender and performativity, aesthetic formats and cultural stereotypes
in a critical and humorous way.
With more than ten pieces to date, he took part in important national and
international events: world cultural form, São Paulo; Ateliê de
Coreógrafos Brasileiros, 1st, 4th, 5th editions; Itaú Cultural
Rumos Dança 2006/2007; Festival Internacional de Artes Cênicas,
Bahia; Panorama de Dança, Rio de Janeiro; Bienal de Dança,
Ceará.
With the Ensemble Dimenti, he received the audience prize of the Festival
de Teatro de São José do Rio Preto (São Paulo, 2000)
for the best piece and the prize for the best piece and the best direction
of the Fenateg (Paraíba 2003). He received the prize for the best
experimental video of the Festival de Gramado cine-vídeo 2007 for
the dance video Sensações Contrárias. Furthermore, the
Rolex Mentor and Protegée Arts Iniciative (Switzerland) nominated
him for their program.