Encantado” by choreographer Lia Rodrigues
Brazilian choreographer Lia Rodrigues’ Encandato is a ballet set in a phantasmagorical world.
Staged as a response to a clean water problem in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, where her company Companhia de Dancas is based, the ballet is a call to return to the natural world, or, in African-Brazilian, encantado, the world of enchantment.
For Encantado, Rodrigues uses a carpet woven from different fabrics a central motif which the dancers employ to express their emotions.
One by one, as the dancers emerge from the fabric, they transform the simple cloth into complex and magical turbans, wraps and gowns, filling the stage with colour and energy.
On a more mundane level, the fabrics represent the materials that the homeless wrap themselves in to ward off the cold.
In the favelas, Brazil’s shantytowns, where conflict and crime is often the common denominator, dance and song are one of the few unifying and affordable ways for many to celebrate life.
With Encantado Rodrigues takes us on a creative journey that raises serious questions while being joyous and magical.
Sydney Festival
Sydney Opera House
Friday 5 January – Wednesday 10 January
