LIA RODRIGUES CIA DE DANÇAS
She was born in 1956 in São Paulo, Brazil, where she studied classical ballet and history at the University of São Paulo (USP). In 1977, she was one of the founders of the Grupo Andança dance group. Between 1980 and 1982, she worked with Maguy Marin’s company in France and took part in the creation of ‘May B’, one of the classics of contemporary dance. In 1990, she founded the Lia Rodrigues Dance Company, which has staged 27 works directed by her and has performed on numerous occasions in countries across six continents. In 1992, she founded the Panorama dance festival, which she directed until 2005. Together with REDES da Maré, she founded the Maré Arts Centre in 2009 and, in 2011, the Maré Free School of Dance. Lia has received numerous awards and honours throughout her career. She runs courses, workshops and lectures worldwide and promotes national and international artistic exchanges, as well as partnerships with various institutions.
BORDA
In Portuguese, the word ‘borda’ comes from the verb ‘bordar’, which means to embellish, to highlight, to elaborate. It can also refer to a border, a boundary, a threshold, a fringe, a margin, a barrier or a demarcation line – that which separates. There are geographical and political borders, sometimes manifested in walls, barbed wire, gates or checkpoints. In many cases, these borders mark zones of opposition: hospitality and hostility, freedom and domination, inferiority and superiority, what is considered native and what is seen as foreign. Borders can also distinguish between groups and peoples, human and non-human, and establish territories. Who is allowed to cross? Who stays and who is kept out? Who belongs and who does not? Who has the right to exist? The ‘edge’ can also be an intermediate place – an ‘in-between’ space. A space of passage, permanence and encounter. A place belonging to no one and to everyone. To those who arrive, those who depart, those who stay.
Figuratively speaking, the word ‘edge’ is also related to the act of imagining, of fantasising. The imagination intensifies dreams and mirages, and gives us the possibility of going beyond borders. ‘Borda’, a new creation by the Lia Rodrigues Dance Company, was conceived at the Maré Arts Centre in Rio de Janeiro, and was patiently and painstakingly woven as a porous space of fluid otherness – an embroidery where the margins move, float and dance.
CREDITS
Concept: Lia Rodrigues
Danced and created in collaboration with: Leonardo Nunes, Valentina Fittipaldi, Andrey da Silva, David Abreu, Raquel Alexandre, Daline Ribeiro, João Alves, Cayo Almeida, Vitor de Abreu
Assistant director: Amália Lima
Dramaturgy: Silvia Soter
Artistic Collaboration and Images: Sammi Landweer | Lighting design: Nicolas Boudier | Lighting assistants: Magali Foubert and Baptistine Méral | Technical Director (Brazil): Jimmy Wong | Technical Assistant: Matheus Espessoto | Soundtrack: Miguel Bevilacqua (based on excerpts from a recording made in 1938 in northern Brazil by the Folklore Research Mission conceived by the writer and intellectual Mário de Andrade / Excerpt from the song ‘Amor Amor Amor’, in the public domain, which forms part of the repertoire of ‘Cavalo Marinho’, a Brazilian dramatic dance, performed by Luiz Paixão.) | Mixing and mastering: Ronaldo Gonçalves | Production/distribution: Colette de Turville / Production assistant: Astrid Toledo | Production in Brazil: Corpo Rastreado – Gabi Gonçalves and Leo Devitto | Secretary/Administration: Gloria Laureano | Logistical support from the Maré Arts Centre: Sendy Silva | Teachers: Amália Lima, Leonardo Nunes, Valentina Fittipaldi, Andrey Silva | Costumes: Lia Rodrigues Dance Company | Intern: Cecília Carvalhosa | Seamstress: Antônia Jardilino De Paiva | Acknowledgements:
Thérèse Barbanel, Corpo Rastreado, Inês Assumpção, Luiz Assumpção, Diana Nassif, equipe do Centro de Artes da Maré, Jacques Segueilla.
Dedicated to Max Nassif Earp
Production: Lia Rodrigues Dance Company | Co-production: Kunstenfestivaldesarts – Brussels / Maison de la danse / Pôle européen de création, in support of the Lyon Biennale / Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse – Paris / Le CENTQUATRE - Paris / Festival d’Automne à Paris / Wiener Festwochen – Vienna / La Bâtie – Festival de Genève – Comédie de Genève / Romaeuropa – Rome / PACT Zollverein – Essen / One Dance Festival – Plovdiv / Theater Freiburg / Muffatwerk – Munich / Passages Transfestival – Metz / Festival Perspectives – Saarbrücken / Le Parvis, scène nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées / Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer – Berlin / Théâtre Garonne, scène européenne – Toulouse / Le Lieu Unique, Scène nationale de Nantes (in residence at La Libre Usine)
With the support of the Ammodo Foundation, Redes da Maré and Centro de Artes da Maré
Lia Rodrigues is an associate artist at the CENTQUATRE-PARIS theatre / France and at the Maison de la danse / European Centre for Creation, in partnership with the Lyon Dance Biennale / France
ENCANTADO
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CREDITS
Conceived and directed by: Lia Rodrigues;
Danced and created in collaboration with: Leonardo Nunes, Valentina Fittipaldi, Andrey Da Silva, David Abreu and Raquel Alexandre;
Also danced by: Daline Ribeiro, Cayo Almeida, Vitor de Abreu and Sanguessuga;
Creative collaboration: Carolina Repetto, Joana Castro, Larissa Lima, Matheus Macena, Ricardo Xavier and Tiago Oliveira;
Assistant to the creator and director: Amália Lima;
Dramaturgy: Silvia Soter;
Artistic collaboration and imagery: Sammi Landweer;
Lighting design: Nicolas Boudier, with technical assistance from Baptistine Méral and Magali Foubert;
Lighting (design and operation) in Brazil: Jimmy Wong;
Soundtrack and mixing: Alexandre Seabra (based on excerpts from songs of the Guarani Mbya people – Kalipety Village in the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Territory – sung and played during indigenous peoples’ marches in Brasília in August and September 2021, against the Marco Temporal);
Production in Brazil: Corpo Rastreado – Gabi Gonçalves and Leo Devitto
International production and distribution: Colette de Turville, assisted by Astrid Toledo;
Administration in France: Jacques Segueilla;
Concept and production of the Goethe-Institut’s support project: Claudia Oliveira;
Secretary and administration: Glória Laureano;
Teachers: Amalia Lima, Sylvia Barretto and Valentina Fittipaldi;
Acknowledgements: Thérèse Barbanel, Antoine Manologlou, Maguy Marin, Eliana Souza Silva and the team at the Centro de Artes da Maré.
A co-production by: Scène Nationale Carré-Colonnes; Le TAP – Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers; Scène Nationale du Sud-Aquitain; La Coursive – Scène Nationale de La Rochelle; L’empreinte, Scène Nationale Brive-Tulle; Théâtre d’Angoulême Scène Nationale; Le Moulin du Roc, Scène Nationale in Niort; La Scène Nationale d’Aubusson; Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels); Brussels, Theaterfestival (Basel); HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin); Festival Oriente Occidente (Rovereto); Theater Freiburg; OARA – Office Artistique de la Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine; Julidans (Amsterdam); Teatro Municipal do Porto; Festival DDD, Dias de Dança; Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse (Paris); Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS and Festival d’Automne à Paris.
With support from FONDOC (Occitanie)/France; the 2021 International Fund for Cultural and Educational Organisations of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Goethe-Institut and other partners; and the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès/France, in partnership with France Culture.
A production by the Lia Rodrigues Dance Company with support from the Redes da Maré organisation, the “A Maré diz não ao Coronavírus – Projeto Conexão Saúde” campaign and the Centro de Artes da Maré.
Lia Rodrigues is an artist associated with the CENTQUATRE in France.
“Encantado” is dedicated to Oliver.
The word ‘encantado’, from the Latin incantatus, refers to something that is or has been the subject of an incantation or a magical spell. ‘Encantado’ is also synonymous with ‘amazed’, ‘dazzled’ or ‘fascinated’, and is also a form of social greeting.
In Brazil, the word ‘encantado’ has further meanings. The term refers to entities that belong to Afro-Amerindian ways of perceiving the world. The ‘encantados’, animated by unknown forces, move between heaven and earth, in the jungles, amongst the rocks, in fresh and salt waters, on the dunes and amongst the plants, transforming these places into sacred sites. They are beings that traverse time and transmute into different manifestations of nature. They have not experienced death, but have moved on to another plane, acquiring magical powers of protection and healing. Consequently, the predatory actions that threaten life on Earth – the systematic destruction of forests, rivers and the sea – also impact the existence of the ‘Encantados’. It is impossible to separate the ‘Encantados’ from nature, or nature from these beings.
‘Encantado’ is the title of the new production by the Lia Rodrigues Dance Company, which is being launched against the backdrop of the health crisis caused by Covid-19. The choice of this title stemmed from a desire to use magic and enchantment as guides to steer our creative process, which is taking place during this dramatic period we are currently experiencing in Brazil.
How can we enchant our fears and place ourselves within the collective, close to one another? How can we enchant what surrounds us – images, dances and landscapes – and transform them into our bodies and ideas? How can we enter into a state of enchantment and connect with our environment in varied ways, and encounter living beings in all their diversity?