Apresento em Taiwan o primeiro esboço “Homem Torto” e “Como superar o grande Cansaço?” de 2010 (prêmio Rumos dança Itaú Cultural 2009/2010).

Presentation in Taiwan the first sketch of the work ” Crooked Man” and “How to overcome tthe great tiredness?” of 2010. ( Prize Rumos Dança Itaú Cultural 2009/2010)

Homem Torto/ Crooked Man

Some thoughts about both works during 10 months in Taiwan.

Crooked Man (2013)
How to overcome the great tiredness (2010)

Programme

Both pieces revolve around similar issues.
In 2010 I created How to overcome the great tiredness? and it was like my body speaking and responding to the world around me. I sought a way of articulating what I felt in my bones through my bones. It seemed that the world around me in all its incongruity had begun to conspire against me and I felt great weariness. It occurred to me though that from the very tiredness sprang movement, a language of its own and I sought, paradoxically, to harness the exhaustion as a source of power from which to move. I concentrated on creating a specific quality of movement that progresses and yet remains true to real time and real life.
In 2013 Crooked Man is a departure from How to overcome the great tiredness? in a way that it is built on a more discerning conceptual base and much greater variation in movement choices and quality whilst attempting to keep it from being overly conceptual and preserving a sense of immediacy, the sense of it taking place in real time and in real life.
There is a curious correlation between society and the body – Crooked Man is a reflection on the crooked nature of the human condition. I feel in my bones something crooked or skewed – dislocated almost.
We are not symmetrical. We differ in character, and with our diverging personalities often find ourselves at odds with others and the world around us. We are rarely at ease in this world. We are always in search of something. We are never quite at peace.
It seems to me that man nowadays is so crooked, with values suspended and forever in flux.
I ask myself – where has the real man gone?
So I humbly present to you merely a crooked body, a crooked dance. It is not ballet, it is not of any contemporary technique, it is not Oriental dance, it is not Brazilian dance, it is a dance without roots.
As a native of São Paulo, having been in Taiwan during the beginning of my work on Crooked Man has been a great challenge and has provided plenty of inspiration and new sensations physically and mentally. Throughout the creative process of this dance the many places I have passed through in the last year have left deep impressions – be it the time in Taiwan or visits elsewhere in Asia or Europe. While the principal material is and remains my body, which is with me at all times, these changing environments have helped me view this body from different perspectives.
In multi-ethnic Brazil people face a bewildering array of alternate realities – what is this profusion of cultures, and how do we position ourselves, how to look for and discover the one that speaks to us, our origins? There is no given, nothing is already in our hands, we have to reinvent ourselves all the time. It is total freedom of choice – we can be who we want to be, nothing binds us; and yet at the same time it is the challenge to exercise that freedom which is our greatest test. Crooked Man touches on these issues and man’s quest at identity, the provenance of which seems just beyond grasp – an individual attempting to deal with the condition of human existence. Not something to be put right in one afternoon of course, but nevertheless I shall make a valiant attempt.

Crooked Man was first conceived of here in Taipei and I have worked under the auspices of Mr Lin Hwai Min and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. My sincere gratitude goes to Mr Lin Hwai Min and Ms Lee Ching Chun and of course everybody at Cloud Gate for their great help and support. Ms Liang Chun Mei has provided valuable advice on music in relation to my collaboration with musician Tom Monteiro. I am further indebted to the Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor and Protégé programme for affording me such a unique opportunity.
I further like to thank Master Hsiung Wei and Miao Chan Shr Fu for their support and instruction.

The work is still in development, and will continue to evolve until and beyond the Rolex Arts Weekend presentation in October this year in Venice.