Amanda Queirós
Folha de São Paulo
São Paulo
August 2010

Performance from Rio opens the Panorama SESI de Dança

On the stage inhabited by the choreographer Marcela Levi, there are carrots. To quote the exact number, two hundred of them: lined, chopped or sliced. They fall as bombs from the sky and, lined up and attached to the body, are used as an ammunition cartridge.
The images, with a certain childish look, build "Around the Hole Everything Is Edge", which opened on Thursday (5) the 10th edition of Panorama Sesi de Dança, at 20h, at Teatro do Sesi, in São Paulo.
The "childish look" is only apparent. The work - which Marcela describes as a "fable" - embarks on complex issues. It is an essay on the normalization of everyday violence. "I'm very interested in talking about how it is already presupposed, completely assimilated", said Levi to Folha de São Paulo.
In partnership with Flávia Meirelles, she has built a choreography which investigates the presence of this element in various spheres. One of them is the animation movies in which the characters often blast each other and, in the end, everything is fine.
The reference is the adoption of a cartoonish aesthetic. By connecting strongly to the pop universe, this visual approach ultimately creates an access route to the piece that carefuly doesn't flatten the discussion proposed by Marcela.
The other issue in this show, that guided the bodywork, refers to instability (hence its title). "A border is always a dangerous place, where you can fall at any moment," she said.
The inspirations for the show are diverse. They go from Czech adaptation of "Alice" ("Violence is there all the time"), by Jan Svankmajer, to the elusive narrative of filmmaker David Lynch ("I like the way he creates windows that deviate from what is happening"), also including the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot.

SHORT SCENES

In her early career, Marcela worked with choreographer Lia Rodrigues (this Friday at Panorama displaying a documentary about her work).
From Lia, she inherited a dramaturgy founded on short scenes, sketchs-like, which work separately, but gain strength when sewn together.
The density arises, for example, when we can see, frame by frame, that Marcela speaks of the condition of the very place where she lives, Rio de Janeiro, in which beauty and violence seem to coexist harmoniously.
It is difficult not to be amused when she dances a rap version of "Dead, Alive" by Bonde Do Tigrão. But it is a smile that comes through the constraints caused by what has already been presented.
The work premiered last year with Marcela and Flavia on stage. In Sao Paulo, for the first time the choreographer shares the scene with his friend - also a dancer and choreographer - Fred Paredes.