25 — 28.05.2022
A carpet of variegated fabrics is slowly unrolled on stage, opening up a kaleidoscope of colours. Thus begins Encantado, the new and highly anticipated creation by Lia Rodrigues. In Brazil, the word ‘encantado’ has several meanings. It can either be a synonym for astonishment and wonder, or the effects of a magical spell, but it has a very particular meaning in Afro-Brazilian culture. There it is used to designate animated entities, the encantados, which navigate between land and sky, dunes and rocks, turning them into sacred places. It is these mysterious forces, intimately linked to nature and under threat in today’s world, which are the inspiration behind Rodrigues’s Encantado, a piece which bears the hallmarks of the context in which it was created. With Covid-19 impacting particularly heavily on Brazil, the choreographer asked herself how we could “enchant our fears” in order to recreate a collective dynamic and bring individuals closer together. Encantado is a mesmerising choreography for 11 dancers and countless fabrics, in which these forces – similar to the ‘encantados’ – journey from one body to the other. After the powerful Fúria (2019), and the touching correspondence resulting in Outrar (2021), Rodrigues returns to Kunstenfestivaldesarts, this time on the new stage at CC De Factorij in Zaventem.
« If there is any magic in Encantado, it was hard-earned - and we have Rodrigues to thank for it. » Financial Times
How can we enchant our fears and be part of the group?
The word “encantado”, from the Latin incantatus, means something that is or has been the object of an enchantment or magic spell. “Encantado” is also synonymous with wonder, bedazzlement and fascination.
In Brazil, the word “encantado” has other meanings. The term refers to entities found in Afro-American ways of seeing the world. The “encantados”, animated by unknown powers, move between the sky and earth, in jungles, on rocks, in fresh and salt water, in dunes, in plants, turning them into sacred places.
These are beings that move through time and transmute into different expressions of nature. They have not died but have moved to another level, acquiring magical powers of protection and healing.
The predatory actions that threaten life on earth, the systematic destruction of forests, rivers and seas, also have an impact on the existence of “encantados”. There is no way of separating encantados from nature or nature from these beings.
Encantado is the title of my company’s latest creation that began during the Covid-19 health crisis. The choice of this title came out of a desire to use magic and incantation to guide our creative process unfolding during the dramatic time we’re living through in Brazil.
How can we enchant our fears and be part of the group, close to one another? How can we enchant our ideas and our bodies by turning them into images, dances and landscapes?
To come up with a new creation, you have to enter the enchantment, engage in various compositions and go in search of all kinds of living beings.
Creating agglomerations and collections of bacteria, cashew nuts, flowers, protozoa, rivers, animals immersed in fresh water, seaweed, millipedes, frogs, snakes, porpoises, bees, grasshoppers, mushrooms, lakes, underwater spaces, skies, sun, wind, trees in a forest and garden plants, viruses, nights, the moon, the stars, the earth, air and water, and movements that travel from body to body like entities.
And people… people who are enchanted and disenchanted in an unending dance.
- Lia Rodrigues, December 2021
- Text published during the Festival d’Automne à Paris
Presentation: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Cultuurcentrum De Factorij
Creation: Lia Rodrigues | Danced and created in close collaboration with: Leonardo Nunes, Carolina Repetto, Valentina Fittipaldi, Andrey da Silva, Larissa Lima, Ricardo Xavier, Dandara Patroclo, David Abreu, Felipe Vieira Vian, Tiago Oliveira, Raquel Alexandre | Dramaturgy: Silvia Soter | Light design: Nicolas Boudier | Sound: Alexandre Seabra | Stage Manager: Magali Foubert, Baptistine Méral | Choreographic assistant: Amalia Lima | Artistic Collaboration, images: Sammi Landweer | Music: extracts from GUARANI MBYA PEOPLE / Kalipety do Village T.I. / Tenondé Porã, sung and played during the indigenous demonstration in Brasilia in August 2021 for the recognition of their endangered ancestral lands | Sound editing: Alexandre Seabra | International representation: Colette de Turville | Production Coordinator: Astrid Toledo | Administration: Jacques Segueilla | Production (Brasil): Gabi Gonçalves / Corpo Rastreado | Production (Goethe-Institut): Claudia Oliveira | Secretary: Gloria Laureano | Teachers: Amalia Lima, Sylvia Barretto, Valentina Fittipaldi
Coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse, Le CENTQUATRE, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Scène Nationale Carré-Colonnes, Bordeaux Métropole, Le TAP – Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers, Scène Nationale du Sud-Aquitain, La Coursive – Scène Nationale La Rochelle, L’Empreinte, Scène Nationale Brive, Théâtre d’Angoulême Scène Nationale, Le Moulin du Roc – Scène Nationale à Niort, La Scène Nationale d’Aubusson – OARA Office Artistique de la Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Theaterfestival, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Festival Oriente Occidente, Theater Freiburg, Julidans, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Festival DDD, Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças, Association Lia Rodrigues – France
With the support of: Redes da Maré e Centro de Artes da Maré, FONDOC, Fonds international de secours pour les organisations de la culture et de l’éducation 2021 du ministère fédéral allemand des Affaires étrangères, Goethe-Institut and other partners
Thanks to: Thérèse Barbanel, Antoine Manologlou, Maguy Marin, Eliana Souza Silva, team of Centro de Artes da Maré
Encantado is dedicated to Olivier
