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Festival TransAmériques
May 22 to June 5, 2025
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POROROCA

LIA RODRIGUES

An unceasing swell of eleven dancers splashes the stage with raw beauty fed by rage, hope and animality. A wonderful metaphor for the clash of differences.

Details

Water Bomb
Pororoca means tidal bore, the powerful ebb and flow of the dramatic encounter that occurs when the roaring waters of the Amazon charge into the ocean currents of the Atlantic. For Lia Rodrigues it is a metaphor for the collision of differences. She creates an unceasing swell onstage, a spirited, multicoloured wave of 11 dancers, a fluid mass of compact energy that swells, rolls, crashes and re-forms in a new embrace of the body, rising and breaking before returning to a brief lull, hovering on the tipping point that will transform chaos into harmony. The movement is vigorous, the breathing raucous as the characters strive for position amidst bodies scraping together. To be, to be together – an eternal challenge.

After spattering the Festival stage with ketchup blood in incarnat (2007), the Brazilian choreographer will be dousing it with raw beauty fed by rage, hope and animality and all in total silence, an exceptionally eloquent silence.

Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças, Art and Society
Founded in a favela in 1990, the company has a twofold mission – to stimulate reflection and discussion through dance pieces, and to fight against poverty and marginalization by means of social action and outreach projects, one of which led recently to the training and hiring of three new dancers. Inspired by contemporary reality, her pieces serve both as a release and as a call for change. Combining performance art and dance, Ce dont nous sommes faitsemphasized the universal need for peace and tenderness. Incarnat dealt with the feelings aroused by the suffering of others, and Pororoca invites us to accept those who are different.

Credits

PRODUCED BY LIA RODRIGUES COMPANHIA DE DANÇAS

CREATION LIA RODRIGUESCREATED AND PERFORMED BYJAMIL CARDOSO + FRANCISCO CAVALCANTI + THAIS GALLIAC + ANA PAULA KAMOZAKI + LIDIA LARANGEIRA + AMÁLIA LIMA + GABRIELE NASCIMENTO + CALIXTO NETO + LEONARDO NUNES + PAULA DE PAULA + BRUNA THIMOTHEO ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTORS ALLYSON AMARAL + CAROLINA CAMPOS + VOLMIR CORDEIRO + PRISCILL A MAIA + CLARISS A REGODRAMATURGY SILVIA SOTERCOSTUME DESIGN JOÃO SALDANHA + MARCELO BRAGALIGHTING DESIGN NICOLAS BOUDIER

COPRODUCTION CENTRE NATIONAL DE DANSE CONTEMPORAINE (ANGERS) + THÉÂTRE LE QUAI WITH THÉÂTRE JEAN VILAR (VITRY-SUR-SEINE) + THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE – FESTIVAL D’AUTOMNE (PARIS) + KUNSTENFESTIVALD ESARTS (BRUXELLES)

WITH THE PARTNERSHIP OFREDES DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DA MARÉ WITH THE SUPPORT OFESPAÇO SESC (RIO DE JANEIRO) + FONDATION PRINCE CLAUS POUR LA CULTURE ET LE DÉVELOPPEMENT + PETROBRÁS

PREMIERED AT THEATRE LE QUAI, PARIS, NOVEMBER 2009

WRITTEN BY FABIENNE CABADOTRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH

 

LIA RODRIGUES (RIO DE JANEIRO)

Lia Rodrigues, Artist and Activist
Without the festival that Lia Rodrigues founded and has been directing for the past 13 years, Brazilian contemporary dance would not be what it is today, and the sprawling favela in the heart of Rio would not be the same had she not created a dance company and a performance centre there.

Full biography