Neue Presse 05 de MAY de 2005
Neue Presse
Braunschweig, Germany
05/MAY/2005
By Neue Presse
MOVEMENTS: BRAZILIANS TWIRLING IN A ROPE JUNGLE
?N?? in German means ?Knoten? (and in English means ?Knot?). The Deborah Colker Dance Company opens the Movimentos Dance Festival of Braunschweig with an involving, culturally rich knot show. Stage front, we see ropes coming down from above the stage, symbolizing a vast tree of life, that later breaks up into an involving, entrapping jungle. The dancers wrap themselves up in them, get tangled, swing around in whirlwinds made of this rope jungle. Rope is the ideal material for such associations, and Colker does use it richly. The Brazilian Star of Choreography has at her bidding a young, radiant, energetic Dance Company, and wields all this wild, raw power to create bold new choreographies. She tells many a short story, while avoiding the monotony of a soap opera. In the first part of the show this isn’t quite clear - in spite of the beauty of the dancers’ movements the show seems a trifle dispersed, due to the dominating image onstage. This changes after the interval, when a red glass box becomes the catalyst of the dance. Dancing duos enter the box, as if they were under a large magnifying glass, and obsessively tangle one another, turning into images of submission and violation. While others flatter one another in the same fashion. Visions of being free or bound, universally overstepping borders and cultures, a to-and-fro of groups and male and female genders, in brilliantly simple yet impressive costumes signed by Alexandre Herchcovitch.
