ANTHROPOPHAGIC WOMAN
Retrópica
RETRÓPICA marks the start of Mari Paula's professional career as a creator and of her research on the body, Cultural Anthropophagy and the encounter between Brazil and Spain. A physically and politically charged performance that addresses women, colonialism and the transformation of cultural references. Winner of the Funarte National Prize – Klauss Vianna Dance Prize, it has been performed more than 40 times in Africa, Latin America and Europe, and has been the subject of research and academic work by students and universities in Brazil, the United States and Spain.
Year: 2017
Concept, choreography and performance: Mari Paula
“Retrópica explores the complexity of the female condition through strength, beauty, self-confidence and irony, in a brilliant and entertaining way.”
— SeeingDance
Funarte – Klauss Vianna National Dance Prize · Brazil
Synopsis
Retrópica is an anthropophagic dance performance. It devours samba, bossa nova and heel-tapping, and breaks with the imaginary that defends culture as something sealed off. While neocolonialism, fanaticism, intolerance, immorality and fear run us over, Retrópica is woman. It is hunger, it is fire, it is extreme pleasure in the form of pure honey still running through the veins of the Equator.
The hegemonic discourse, far from romantic ideas, tells that Brazil was “rediscovered” by an Iberian-Catholic treaty. That said, it was our America that gave birth to European modernity. Yet they stuffed us with catechism, leaving us thirsty, to suckle from a profane virgin. Our hero is the barbarian and has a woman’s breasts, like the wet nurses from Pas who gave their essence in milk to the children of power.
Immersed in the fissure of the nation of Tropicalism, we are still adrift but with samba in our feet. The Matriarchy of Pindorama is reborn in this work and stages the re-signification of everything that had to die for us to be born.
A body between cultures
Retrópica is a dance and performance solo by Brazilian choreographer Mari Paula. The research updates the concept of Cultural Anthropophagy, “eating, digesting and appropriating a cultural fact”, and applies it to the moving body in a hybrid and ritualised way. The piece is the result of cooperation and collaboration between Brazilian and Spanish artists, who developed an artistic dialogue from experimenting with the concept of anthropophagy during the creative process.
Through a hybrid choreographic language, samba, bossa nova and flamenco are absorbed and re-signified by the body, creating a space where cultures meet, clash and transform.
Since its premiere in 2017, Retrópica has been performed more than 40 times in different countries in Africa, Latin America and Europe.
Currently out of the company’s touring catalogue, Retrópica is preparing its return in 2027, ten years after its premiere, in a new revision of the piece celebrating the first decade of Mari Paula – Dance & Performance.
Artistic team
Concept, direction and choreography: Mari Paula
Artistic mentoring: Airton Rodrigues · Angela Donat Mas
Dramaturgical and movement collaboration: Leonarda Glück · Giorgia Conceição · Ricardo Nolasco
Texts: Leonarda Glück — Manifesto Cu-Brasil · Luis Pablo Beauregard — El País
Sound project: Fernando de Castro
Lighting design: Trio Desenho de Luz
Poster and visual identity: Evandro Prado
Photography: Cayo Vieira · Humberto Araújo
Video: Livea Castro · Marcus Bonato
Brazil premiere production: Jorge Schneider · Simone Bönisch
Production and touring: Adrián Torices
National and international distribution: Sit and See – Iñaki Díez · Raquel Jiménez
Research support: Casa Hoffmann Curitiba · Casa Selvática
Creation support: FUNARTE · Brazilian Ministry of Culture
Award: Funarte National Prize – Klauss Vianna Dance Prize · Brazil
Premiere: 2017
Touring: more than 40 performances in Africa, Latin America and Europe.
