HAU 2: 17th / 18th April, 8.00 pm

DI cia. de dança

»Procedimentos de um Pseudópodo – a coreografia« (Progression of a Pseudopod – the choreography)
Pseudopod: A Study on the Possibilities of Interaction in Dance

German premier / Talk with the audience: 18th April, after the performance

Pseudopods are not just there for locomotion. Amoebas surround their prey with a pseudopod and incorporate it. Inspired by this phenomenon, we conducted a series of experiments on the playful relationship between movement, objects and bodies. We began in 2002 with the “Behavioral Study I”. In 2005 the “Behavioral Study II” followed and then finally the “Analysis” of the study in 2006. For the choreography “Behaviour of a Pseudopod”, created in 2008, we investigated three aspects:

  • the construction of virtuosity;
  • the playful element;
  • subjective principles in images.

Questions were raised investigating each aspect:

  1. How do you use virtuosity in your work, without having it dominate events or it becoming an end in itself? Can virtuosity have inherent faults? Or is it then no longer virtuous? In B-boying, for example, is virtuosity constitutive for the movement instead of just being a part of the movement’s character?
  2. Is playfulness a subjectively perceived atmosphere, a mood? Or does playfulness exist in the concrete movement – is it physical and objective? Doesn’t the one emerge from the other and vice versa? Is the ball an object that determines the course of the game? And what meaning do other objects on stage have? Why should a ball be more productive for a creative process than other objects?
  3. How are images transported into choreographic and not purely visual elements? How does one reach change through an aesthetic detail that may be tiny, but is essential in a political, ethical and finally aesthetic context?

These questions gave us points of reference that were very helpful for the creative process. We recognized the necessity of a more liberated form of dance that doesn’t necessarily produce meaning. Poetry should reside in each activity and interaction. A certain minimalism is also helpful that creates a distance to extreme Western zeal and reveals the effect of an interaction between bodies (or its absence): spectacular, splendid, but also always frivolous. We would like to abandon this arrogance and make our creative process transparent instead. We would like to expose it to the voyeurism of an audience and awaken the wish in them to participate invisibly.

In this way dance could continue to exist in its intimacy, as its own private orgy or simply a game – even on stage!

A wheelchair can be a car that has an accident. A surfboard can be used as a physiotherapeutic tool, or as a kite that lets all worries disappear. The objects are relieved of their original function: the wheelchair is no longer just a chair that you can move around in. A board’s possible functions are expanded tremendously when you don’t just stand on it to surf or skate. A soccer foul can be turned into a choreographic element – or not.

Abandoning the original functionality of objects and gestures pointed the way to new forms of movement. Taking off and venturing far away: the object takes on the character of a metaphor and thus allows for a new dimension of contact, a shift through a radical, unprejudiced approach. You can fly in a wheelchair, with a ball and on a board. Or on an old tire from which the entire group dares to take a parachute jump.

The pseudopod study, inspired by the choreographer Taís Vieira, allowed the choreographer Paulo Azevedo new possibilities for scenic creation. An approximately 50 minute choreographic remix was created from previous steps of the project. It is an impulse for new meanings, musicality and interaction. Objects and bodies interact continually. They become simultaneous observers and participants of a game in which each contact is taken to the extreme without pouring the relationships between those involved into specific molds.

Choreography: Paulo Azevedo / Pedagogy and Production: Dilma Negreiros / Consultation: Tais Vieira / Rehearsal Management: Ariana Mota / Interpreters: Aline Negreiros, Ariana Mota, Éverton Viana, Jonas Leonardo, Maurício de Muros, Rafael Mata, Renato Mota and Taís Santos / Soundtrack: Felippe Xyu / Light: Felippe Xyu / Vídeo: Filipe Itagiba

DI cia. de dança

Paulo Azevedo (Macaé) – completed a doctorate in social policy and has a degree in sports science. He is the artistic director of the companies Membros cia. de dança and DI cia. de dança, as well as the integrated center for studies of the Hip Hop movement (CIEM-h2). He also founded the school Dança de Rua Paulo Azevedo (Paulo Azevedo School for Streetdance). His studies are dedicated to the methodology of working with disabled and non-disabled dancers and cultural policy for Brazilian adolescents, among other issues. Publications include "Dança de Rua – contador de histórias" (Streetdancers – Storytellers), "A Descoberta de Talentos nas Escolas Municipais de Macaé" (The Discovery of Talent in the Municipal Schools of Macaé), "Dança de Rua: uma pesquisa de socialização" (Streetdance: a study of socialisation) and “Meninos que não criam permanecem no C.R.I.A.M.” (Adolescents that don’t create, remain in open prison).

Dilma Negreiros (Macaé) – is a dancer and, since 1999, producer of the dance company DI cia. de dança. Since 2005, she has been the pedagogic director and producer of the research centre for Hip Hop CIEM.h2. She is currently pursuing further studies in corporate pedagogy.