Insónia
Insónia comes from the troubled environment of everyday life where our mechanized lives transports us into a universe of tension, of padronized patterns.
For some this is a disorder but for others a companion through night and day.
In an increasingly more intense daily praxis, where time is always against us, the frenetic pace of just being someone, the goals set and the goals to fulfill, are enough to alert sleep. It's not the guest of honor for another night.
There is so much to do, to hear, to see in this society totally subjugated to the instantaneous. In a society where the news are accessible 24 hours a day, where the media technology has eliminated time zones and each hour is more important
than the next. So why do we sleep?
And when we try to sleep...
We can try to count sheeps. We reach to the number 1256 and we are more awake than ever. We begin to read a book, a magazine, the label of any package and nothing works.
We start talking to ourselves, turn on the television... We start zapping and watching telemarketing. The same advertisement, of any product, repeatedly.
How can we sleep if the night is as clear as the day?
In an environment of sleepwalking, between falling asleep and waking up, this choreography is represented by a constant agitation being invaded by dreams, moments of calmness and even comedy inspired by our daily lives. Insónia is treated, not in its darkness, but rather as a disturbance of different moods and synesthesias that take us traveling, sometimes transposing the mirror itself, where the scream emerges beyond the echo.
Insónia is the reflection of the constant attention and vigil, which the contemporary man has become accustomed to have and to be in order to survive. So Insónia may not be just a lack of sleep.
For many of us it is a lifestyle.
(Juliana Andrade and Ricardo Mendes)
Artistic File
Choreography: Juliana Andrade and Ricardo Mendes
Soundtrack: Thomas Newman, Robert Milles and Tan Dun
Costume: Nuno Luís
Light design: Henrique Amoedo and Maurício Freitas
Production: Regional Directorate of Special Education and Rehabilitation
World premiere: 19/11/2004 Funchal (Portugal)
