|
Click here to take the ExploreDance.com user survey. Your anonymous feedback will help us continue to bring you coverage of more dance.
|
 |
|||||
The opening piece, "Avanhia," was mystical and reverent, leading the audience into a kind of worship service for mother Earth, beginning with the sound of wind chimes and singer Katia Moraes' bittersweet, disembodied chants. The dancers entered through the audience, clad all in white, a clergy of movement. But this pristine, holy dress didn't stop them from playing in the dirt, so to speak. They clawed the sky and then plunged to the ground, rubbing their hands as if sifting through earth. Their dizzying spins evoked the rotation of the Earth on its axis. The following pieces brought fiery bursts of color to the stage as the dancers paid respect to the elements of water and wind and the gods of hunting and herding. In flowing dresses of vibrant green, fuchsia, and orange, the dancers gathered as if at a well or river, collecting the precious resource in clay pots. Blending folk dance with ballet, they alternated between frenzies of arm movement to pounding drums and lyrical leaps to percussive sounds of thunder and rain. Next, camouflaged in bright feathered headdresses, the dancers entered the stage with a warlike swagger, referencing the warrior spirit of capoeira movement. These pieces exploring the concept of Axé were dense, textured, and satisfying, and rooted in spirituality. The evening's concluding pieces were lighter crowd pleasers, from the acrobatic feats of soloist Gustavo Caldas to the swishing hips and shoulder shimmies of "Onile's Smiling Daughters," a piece celebrating the samba beat that brought the dancers into the crowd. One element noticeably absent from the evening was the virtual set of video projections by Mexico City director and video artist Leonardo Bondani that had been planned. These images accompanied by text were to have enhanced the audience's understanding of the Yoruba stories being told throughout the evening. Unfortunately, this element of the show never materialized, perhaps due to technical difficulties. This collaboration between movement, image, and text is something new for Viver Brasil and something I look forward to experiencing in the future. But on Friday, the group's proficiency in translating myth into movement continued to speak for itself.
|
|||||
|
