JPG: Stories: Photo Essay: Brazil moves Berlin

Brazil moves Berlin

By Joao Paglione

16 Apr 2007

Never watched or photographed a dance performance before, but when you become a photographer and really live to catch the moment you´ll go for anything, just to capture the moment.

The Third Festival of Contemporary Brazilian Dance in Berlin.

Brazil is on the move. For large parts of the population, living conditions have steadily improved over the last few years. In the cultural sector, major cornerstones have been the decentralization of funding projects and structural measures. Guest performance possibilities, production money and prizes have helped to further the distribution and development of Brazilian dance. From Manaus by the River Amazon down to Porto Alegre all the way in the South of Brazil, the diversity of dance scenes, the range of production conditions, mirror the situation of this gigantic country: of awakenings and stagnation, of feudalistic and democratic political conditions, of great poverty and enormous wealth in the immediate vicinity of each other.

In 2003 we approached the dance continent Brazil with choreographies from a wide range of fields and parts of the country. These sometimes highly political pieces of 2005 illustrated the processes that the country was going through after redemocratization. We saw many faces of Brazil. And this time some of its bellyaches as well: move berlim 2007 presents a number of pieces that examine the political and social fabric of Brazil and its related realities in very complex ways. The reappraisal of one's own history as part of the history of the entire country plays an important role as well.

We have also chosen some new forms of presentation to clarify and deepen the understanding of what is being presented with the help of dance researchers and performers. Some of the choreographers will also be teaching at the Tanzfabrik Berlin and the Hochschulübergreifende Zentrum Tanz. At the Free University's Institute for Theater Studies there will be an advanced seminar with a focus on move berlim and its students will also be involved in the festival.

Wagner Carvalho, Björn Dirk Schlüter

All the photograph were from the following performance:

HAU 1: April 12 – 13; 7.30 pm (festival opening)

»Máquina de Desgastar Gente«

(Human Demoralization Machine)

ATELIÊ DE COREÓGRAFOS BRASILEIROS, SÃO PAULO / SALVADOR

European Premier/ talk with the audience: April 13, after the performance

The image of the black man in Brazilian society – and the study thereof – is the subject of »Máquina de Desgastar Gente«, a piece conceived by Luiz de Abreu for the »5. Ateliê de Coreógrafos Brasileiros«.

The piece moves beyond dance; its assemblage integrates music and theater to recount everyday impressions, personal memories and the histories of the ensemble members' ancestors. With this piece, Luiz de Abreu, author and director of the polemical piece »Samba do Crioulo Doido«, the opening of move berlim 2005, broadens the discussion of the historical role of the black man in Brazilian daily society.

In a haunting, sometimes humorous, but always decidedly political way, Abreu reveals the black man's contribution to the »cultura mestiça«, with the use of sculptural, acoustic and theatrical elements. Abreu consciously utilizes national symbols – the official as well as the non-official. They are however easily identified as insignia of Brazilian culture.

Folk dances, the clothing of the coastal dwellers, the rows of houses in the historical city district, the sounds of the drums are all elements of »Máquina de Desgastar Gente«.

concept, directing, choreography: Luiz de Abreu