A Tarde - Coluna Opini 11 de MAY de 2000
A Tarde - Coluna Opini
Bahia, Brazil
11/MAY/2000
By Mary Weinstein
HOMEWORK DONE THOROUGHLY
Companhia de Dan?a Deborah Colker?s Casa transforms everyday gestures such as sleeping, dating and fighting into art.
Those who were at Castro Alves Theater to see Deborah Colker?s company dancing had a chance to watch a piece which is on the verge of perfection. Although the beginning of the performance lets the audience a little wavering, Casa is clean and cool. None of the movements was done purposelessly and luckily there were no cambr?s or grand jet?s. The piece is modern and it has no intention or motives to extend the show length. The sequence of falls and leaps, fits and carryings makes choreography always at the right time, all the time (65 minutes). And at the right place too: Gringo Cardia’s set design. There are no illustrated sequences. Ordinary gestures like sleeping, tooth brushing, dating and fighting are merely suggested. These quotidian movements carry no suffering or dramatization. They are not different from reality. There is even a dawn effect by winning Jorginho de Carvalho’s lighting design, who has done "Asdr?bal Trouxe o Trombone" and many others in the 80?s.
Ms. Colker is well-known in Salvador by her previous works. She used to visit us when the Federal University of Bahia put up those fantastic contemporary dance workshops (organized by Dulce Aquino and with Professor Ernst Widmer?s accord) and rambled Campo Grande and Terreiro de Jesus where at those times there used to be the Dance School in the old building of Medicine School. She visited us every year as a dancer of Coringa Group, which stunned very spectator at Castro Alves Theater. At that time the theater was a flowering place to launch the most anarchic dance groups one could imagine. Coringa was a dear one because it had a relaxing way of moving on stage. The dancers did brilliant feats, without looking as if they studied Martha Graham exhaustively. On the contrary, they seemed to dance with the wind, nothing academic.
Coringa Group belonged to one of the most brilliant and unique styled dancers ever seen by dance experts: the famous Uruguayan Graciela Figueroa. Colker was conceived in this Rio?s dance group and one can identify some remnants of that former troupe. Some of the falls, leaps on and off dancers? arms, the somersaults and mainly the wall walking at that time were in a very small scale and there were no long-held head and neck stands, but they had ingenious effects. It was a show that could only be performed at Ipanema Theater in Rio and until Casa?s debut at Castro Alves Theater, the show house had never before had such solid walls.
Finally, this is to say that Ms Colker keeps opening doors and windows to dance made in Brazil. She has done her homework thoroughly. Casa may not be so prowess-like as Rota, her former work, but it is definitely good, mainly because it has the right measure. No more, no less.
