Beautiful people
A man lies in the memory of his vision, while the stars slowly leave the stage. A woman approaches the front of the stage and says with conviction: "I want to be a famous and internationally recognized dancer".
The declaration of desire is a right we usually recognize each other. Rui Horta's proposal for the Dançando com a Diferença gives us back that desire and make us reflect on to what extent we are prepared to accept the desires of other bodies. In fact, we may be willing to recognize them more in one body than in others. It is not simply a question of accepting the difference, but rather dealing with it and living with the drives that come to us from the other side of the mirror.
What do we see on the other side of the mirror?
What do each spectator see on the other side of the stage?
Beautiful people does not hide the deficiency, nor wrap it in feelings of pity. In a sense, what the choreographer does is to make more visible the brutality and the injust ways society treats the disabled people. He does it from the simple life stories, some fiction and some from simple performative episodes. Some gestures will seem shocking, like the body that is cruelly thrown out of the wheelchair, others ridiculously competitive, such as the microphone dispute, others at the edge of conflict, as the fight in slow-motion. A forgotten megaphone in the center of the stage will signal the chant of the beggar, the excluded, but also the cry of revolt so often postponed. A body wrapped in Christmas lights will expose the small and false charities we admit and promote on precise dates. Another body wrapped in tape will reveal the roughness of things that do not follow as we would wish.
When the interpreters approach the center of the stage with worms on their heads, the viewer may feel the discomfort of the gaze, a sort of dissonant knot in the center of their own minds. But it will be especially in the heart where he will find the formula to untie this knot. He will then discover the meaning of this piece constructed with fragments, of this simultaneously disturbing and sensitive piece. At the end, he like the interpreters, will be perhaps with a tangle of stars in his hands... And he will say: these are beautiful people.
(Daniel Tércio)
Artistic File
Conception, texts and choreography: Rui Horta
Artistic direction: Henrique Amoedo
Interpreter: António José Freitas, Bárbara Matos, Elsa Freitas, José Manuel Figueira, Juliana Andrade, Ricardo Mendes, Sofia Marote and Sónia Gouveia
Rehearsal assistant: Vanessa Amaral
Voice reahersal assistant: Lidiane Duailibi
Choreographic notation: Luísa Aguiar
Stage assistant: Fátima Trindade and Telmo Ferreira
Sound operation: Luísa Aguiar and Rui Branco
Soundtrack: Tiago Cerqueira; Nick Cave; John Zorn /Ennio Morricone; Eurythmics (arrangement by Tiago Cerqueira)
Costume and light design: Rui Horta
Dressmaker: Fátima Trindade
Light operation: Maurício Freitas
Thanks: Ana Paula Vieito, Dolores Aguiar, Maria José Freitas, Miguel Vieira, Pedro Rodrigues, Rolando Vasconcelos, Sara Anjo, Victor Feitas and Volodimir Bobuskyy
Production: AAAIDD - Associação dos Amigos da Arte Inclusiva - Dançando com a Diferença
Duration: 45 minutes
Rated: +6 years
Absolute premiere: 14/06/2008 Centro das Artes Casa das Mudas Calheta - Madeira (Portugal)
