Retrópica

Synopsis

Retrópica is an anthropophagic dance performance. It devours samba, bossa nova, heel-tapping rhythms, and breaks with the imaginary that defends culture as something hermetic. While neocolonialism, fanaticism, intolerance, immorality and fear run us over, Retrópica is woman. She is hunger, she is fire, she is extreme pleasure in the form of pure honey still trickling through the veins of the Equator.

Hegemonic discourse, far removed from romantic ideas, tells us that Brazil was “rediscovered” through an Iberian-Catholic treaty. And yet, it was our America that gave birth to European modernity. Even so, they force-fed us catechism, leaving us, thirsty, to suckle at a profane virgin. Our hero is the barbarian, and has the breast of a woman, like the pasiega women who offered their essence as milk to the children of power.

Submerged in the fracture of the nation of tropicalismo, we remain without direction but with samba in our feet. The Matriarchy of Pindorama is reborn in this work, staging the re-signification of everything that had to die so that we could be born.

National Funarte Klauss Vianna Dance Award (Brazil). Retrópica is a solo work in which, through the body, the influence between two cultures in friction across time and borders is made manifest. The piece has been performed around 40 times in venues and festivals across South America, Africa and Europe, including the 36th Madrid en Danza.

The research updates the concept of Cultural Anthropophagy — “eating, digesting and appropriating a cultural act” — applying it to the field of the moving body in a hybrid, ritualised way. The piece is the result of cooperation and collaboration between Brazilian and Spanish artists, who carried out an artistic dialogue exploring the concept of anthropophagy throughout the creative process.

Artistic Team

Concept, choreography and performance: Mari Paula
Choreographic guidance: Airton Rodrigues and Ángela Donat Mas
Dramaturgical guidance: Giorgia Conceição, Leonarda Glück and Ricardo Nolasco
Texts: Leonarda Glück and Luis Pablo Beauregard (El País)
Lighting design: Trio Desenho de Luz
Musical direction: Fernando de Castro
Technical direction: Carlos Molina or Flavia Mayans
Illustration: Evandro Prado
Costume: Mari Paula
Photos: Cayo Vieira and Humberto Araújo
Videos: Livea Castro and Marcus Bonato
Production and coordination (premiere): Jorge Schneider and Simone Bönisch (ABABTG)
Management and distribution: Iñaki Díez Lapeña
Produced by: Mari Paula — Dance & Performance

Residencies

Support: Fundação Nacional das Artes — Funarte, Brazil 2017.
Award: National Funarte Klauss Vianna Dance Award (Brazil).
Touring circuit: Approximately 40 performances in venues and festivals across South America, Africa and Europe, including the 36th Madrid en Danza.