Gira Dança, Natal

»Corpo Estranho« (Foreign Bodies)

The piece “Foreign Bodies” is based on the personal biographies of various members of the Gira Dança ensemble. True stories, documented in a series of interviews, form the basis for the choreography’s composition. It consists of the collective rendition of each member’s experiences, their relationship with their own bodies and their emotional lives.
Anderson Leão, choreographer and artistic director of Gira Dança, took as his starting point for the concept of “Corpo Estranho”, his experiences of collective living from the last ten years, ranging back to before the group was formed. During their travels as a group, over the course of the seasons and in the friendships that developed, he observed how the dancers dealt with their relationships to one another, their intimate experiences and, above all, with the taboo of sexuality among the physically handicapped and visually impaired. In 2007, “Foreign Bodies” was awarded the “Prêmio Funarte Klauss Vianna de Dança” prize.

„It is strange not to fulfill society’s expectations and to be reduced to mere survival in the eyes of those, who appropriate everything one owns. Life, even if it isn’t easy, is a constant search driven by a foreign body. Every human being is an existence, a life, every life is a gesture, and even if they are extremely different, they still have something in common. Maybe you can’t see it, but you can feel it – or you just need to be free enough to awaken your own foreign body. It often happens that someone penetrates our inner self and triggers reactions that cause us to become hostages of our own imagination. But it’s so hard to decipher this huge body that consists of the two sides of a coin. As different as we may be, we still all have a foreign body – it calls itself love.”
Anderson Leão

Laso Cia. de Dança, Rio de Janeiro

Caminhos (Paths)
(Excerpts)

“Caminhos” is a performance about interpersonal relationships. Its starting point is the family and its existential questions. In a light and playful language, movement is identified as the decipherable main argument between audience and artists. Based on situations taken from daily life, e.g. a football game, card game or a love story, things take on life from a new perspective, develop relationships with the performers and become a central element of the choreographic composition.

Ângelo Madureira, Recife/ São Paulo

»Delírio« (Delirium)
(short version)

Ângelo Madureira’s solo was created in 1999 in connection with a study on percussion solos, in which he examined Frevo concepts (Frevo = a Brazilian style of music from Pernambuco) in “Frevo Capoeira e Passo” by Waldemar de Oliveira. Oliveira writes that Frevo is the equivalent of music and Passo, the steps, are the equivalent of dance. On the basis of this concept, Ângelo Madureira developed this percussion solo, but replaced the Frevo music with the sounds of progressive rock. This brings up the following question: If you extract the music from the Frevo, what is being danced? The answer is “Delírio”, a playful piece in which aspects of depicted popular dances are clearly recognizable.

AjaDuo, Berlin

Brazilian Music

Anastácia Azevedo & Band, Berlin

Forró in the City

Dance Music from Northeastern Brazil