Lavagem

Water Games

Beneath a large blue tarp, a creature breathes in, rasping. A collective spasm heralds the start of a flurry of activity: soap and buckets in hand, six performers slide around, falling over, frothing foam and filling the space with perfect, immaculate bubbles. The performance shows the interconnectedness of bodies, their complex and fragile intertwining, and it spatters the roles assigned in a profoundly unequal society.

The Brazilian choreographer Alice Ripoll has created a playful, political, poetic piece that upends notions of dirty and clean and the racial prejudices that binary evokes. The stage is a playground, happily shared by the dancers and the audience. Nothing stands still and everything is transformed, with the familiar fading away among clumsy domestic gestures. Combining dance, acrobatics, song, and percussion, the formidable performers of the REC ensemble weave a dreamscape that elevates daily chores into a ritual.

Produced by Cia REC

Directed by Alice Ripoll

Original idea Alan Ferreira

Interpretation Katiany Correia + Hiltinho Fantástico + Alan Ferreira + Rômulo Galvão + Tony Hewerton + Tuany Nascimento

Set Design Raquel Theo

Costume Design Paula Ströher

Lighting Design Tomás Ribas

Make-up and props Cleber de Oliveira

Artistic Assistant Laura Samy

Light technician Leandro Barreto

Production Director Natasha Corbelino – Corbelino Cultural

Set and Production Assistant Thais Peixoto

Touring Art Happens

Support Rafael Machado Fisioterapia

Co-produced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Bruxelles) + PACT Zollverein (Essen) + Kaserne Basel (Bâle) + Wiener Festwochen + Julidans (Amsterdam) + Festival de la Cité Lausanne + Passages Transfestival (Metz)+ Romaeuropa Festival and Teatro di Roma – Teatro Nazional + Festival d’Automne à Paris Thanks to Alexandre Belfort + Pedro Bento + Thamires Candida + Andrea Capella + Casa de Mystérios e Novidades + Centro Coreográfico da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro + Sulamita Costa + Walace Ferreira + Juliana França + Mauricio Lima + Renato Linhares + Camila Moura André Oliveira + Diewry Patrick + Dilo Paulo + Arnoldo Pereira de Souza + Camila Rocha + Lenna Santos de Siqueira + Anita Tandeta + Cecilia Ripoll + Juliete Schult

Presented in association with Usine C

Premiered at Wiener Festwochen, on June 28, 2021

North American première

Written by Elsa Pépin

Translated by Katia Grubisic