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Dancers leaping through the air, crashing full force on the
floor, apparently without any protective clothing, breath-taking
roller-skating and slide shows - the Cena 11 Cia. de Dança
troupe raises fundamental questions about the body while pushing
it to no-holds-barred breaking points. In the process, they
create a strange, alien world but, despite the overtly violent
images and bodies apparently bent on nothing short of self-destruction,
it is one also containing an amazing poetry.
Cena 11's hybrid and radical dance style, mixing elements
from video games and comics, computers and electronic music,
androgyny, punk and polemics, has come to occupy a leading
position in new Brazilian dance. The group build on their
commitment to physical theatre, combining a willingness to
push back the boundaries of pain with an in-your-face rejection
of traditional narrative patterns and commercial ideals of
beauty.
Their current on-going SKR project comprises various "procedures"
designed to focus on interdisciplinary research guiding, artistically
and technologically, the company's forthcoming "Skinnerbox"
production, scheduled for performance in 2004. The experimental
chamber for lab analysis named after American behavioural
psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904-90) provides a central focus
for a number of Procedures planned to investigate all the
aspects of behavioural relations. "Procedimento 01"
works with the three basic parameters of control and communication,
subject and object, man and machine, using dance and technology
to explore these themes in two equal parts: first, in a performance
of the choreographic proposal, and secondly, by exploring
the group's creative processes and methods via interaction
with guests and audience.
Cena 11's VIOLENCIA was rated as one of the absolutely outstanding
performances at Berlin's 2003 contemporary Brazilian dance
festival.
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Foto: Cristiano Prim
© Fernando Luiz Rosa
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SKR · Procedimento 01
Choreography: Alejandro Ahmed Lamela Adó
Dancers: Anderson João Gonçalves, Karin Elise
Serafin, Karina Barbi, Paulo Fernando da Silva Ribeiro Jr.
(Kiko), Mazela Ramos Reichelt, Mariana Romagnani Sieveira,
Márcia Letícia Lamela Adó, Gisleine Alioto
Music: Hedra Cristine Rockenbach
Alejandro Ahmed was born in 1971 in Montevideo/Uruguay
and, from 1974 on, grew up in Brazil. He is self-taught and,
since 1984, has been working as a dancer, joining the Cena
11 troupe in 1988 and winning his first national prize with
them. From 1993 on he has headed the group, developing five
choreographies for the ensemble. Between 1990 and 1994, he
decided to specialise, working with teachers such as Ismail
Guiser, Yoko Okada, Roseli Rodrigues, and later taking part
in master classes, including one with Sasha Waltz in 1996.
In 1997, the Vitae Foundation put him forward as a participant
in the International Choreographers Residency of the American
Dance Festival in North Carolina.
http://www.cena11.com.br
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