R  a  i  z    d  i    P  o  l  o  n    dance  company  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raiz  di  Polon  

CP  421-­‐C,  Fazenda,  Praia  

Rua  5  de  Julho,  nº  55    Plateau  –  Praia  

(+238)  994  32  93  

raizdipolon@hotmail.com  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Index

Brief Biography of Raiz di Polon

What the Press Has Said About Raiz di Polon

Works by Raiz di Polon

 

 

About Raiz di Polon  

Raiz di Polon was founded in 1991 in Cabo Verde as one of the many dance groups that existed on the different islands of the archipelago.

In 1994 they came into contact with European contemporary dance through the project and piece Dançar Cabo Verde (Dancing Cabo Verde) by Clara Andermatt and Paulo Ribeiro. They were fascinated by what they saw. Several of the company’s dancers continued to perform in Clara Andermatt’s “Cabo Verdean” pieces, and Raiz di Polon began to organize workshops and dance classes in Cabo Verde as part of the project Dançar o que é Nosso (Dancing what is Ours).

At that point, the members of the company set out to forge a difficult but extremely captivating path in search of new directions for Cabo Verdean dance.

In 1997, Raiz di Polon created its first contemporary dance piece, “Até ao Fim,” which was presented in Cabo Verde and Portugal,.

The group then created “Pêtu,” written by Mano Preto on commission for the Danças na Cidade 99 festival, which debuted in Lisbon in November 1999. “CV Matrix 25” was the company’s next creation, followed in 2001 by “Konquista,” both of which debuted in Lisbon’s Belém Cultural Center.

In 2002, once again on invitation from the Danças na Cidade festival, the company’s two female dancers, in collaboration with Portuguese choreographer Margarida Mestre, created “Duas Sem Três,” which was also presented at the Belém Cultural Center. “Ruínas” is the group’s most recent creation, premiering in the Mindelo International Theater Festival, Mindelact, in Cabo Verde in September 2003. In November 2003, “Duas Sem Três” received the Special Jury Prize at the 5th African and Indian Ocean Choreographic Encounters in Madagascar, and in December 2005, “Ruínas” won the silver medal in the dance and choreography category at the 5th edition of the Francophone Games in Niamey, Niger.

In November 2006, Mano Preto debuted his first solo piece, “Dom Quixote of the Islands,” based on a text by Mário Lúcio Sousa. The piece has already been performed in seven different countries.

In September 2007, Bety Fernandes participated in the creation “Sob o Sol e a Lua,” directed by Brazilian choreographer Carmen da Luz especially for the Mindelact festival. At the same time, she began creating what would later become “Caminho,” her first solo piece, which later premiered in the 2008 edition of Mindelact.

In December 2007, Raiz di Polon premiered “Flor de Acácia,” choreographed by Mano Preto and performed mostly by the students in the Raiz di Polon dance school.

In April of 2008, as a part of the multi-national Shakespeare 24 festival, Mano Preto created and premiered the choreography “Macbeth,” based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare and performed entirely by the students of the Raiz di Polon dance school. In September of 2008, Raiz di Polon was awarded the Copacabana Prize, attributed annually by the Mindeact Association in acknowledgement of its work in the realm of the perfuming arts in Cabo Verde.

In July of 2009, Mano Preto created the piece “The Power of Dance” alongside Ghanaian choreographer Joshua Trebbi as part of a collaboration between Raiz di Polon and Ghana-based company Noyam. The piece premiered the same month in Dodowa, Ghana. In September of the same year, Mano Preto traveled to the United States to conclude and premier the piece “Pleased to Meet You: Infinite Space,” a choreography he created alongside American dancer and choreographer Deborah Goffe, the director of Hartford, Connecticut-based dance company SCabogoatgarden.

In 2011, Raiz di Polon premiered the piece “Cidade Velha,” choreographed by Mano Preto, the international premier of which took place at the 4th edition of the FESTLIP Portuguese Language Theater Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Raiz di Polon was also given the festival’s annual recognition award at the event.

In 2006, Raiz di Polon began the Raiz di Polon dance school, various students of which have performed on stage alongside the company’s dancers both in Cabo Verde and abroad.

In 2014 and 2016, members of the company travaled to China on the invitation of the Cabo Verde-China Friendship Association (AMICACHI) for training and exchanges with Chinese artists, resulting in the creation of several short pieces that have been staged both in China and Cabo Verde.

In 2016, Mano Preto created the pieces “Ben di Fora” and, on special request from the organizers of the FESTLIP, “A Serpente,” a choreograqphy based on the play of the same name by Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues, to be premiered in the 2016 edition of the festival itself, while dancer Rosy Timas created the solo “Novembro,” which was presented at the Kontornu Festival, in Praia, and Mindelact, in São Vicente.

Raiz di Polon has presented its works in Portugal, Cabo Verde, Germany, Luxembourg, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, Wales, Belgium, Senegal, Brazil, Switzerland, Cuba, the United States, Mali, England, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, Kenya, Niger, China, Macau, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Ghana, Spain, France, Algeria, Burkina Faso and São Tomé and Príncipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT THE PRESS HAS WRITTEN ABOUT RAIZ DI POLON

“On the stage, Mano Preto, Raiz di Polon’s choreographer, consolidates his language in ‘Cidade Velha,” the entire dictionary, the entire body, the entire soul of Raiz di Polon’s long trajectory in a work of extraordinary beauty. Of what matter are artists made? Of flesh and bones, I suppose. This would explain such subtlety, such enchantment. Step and repetition. Outlines and movements. Bodies and fragmentation. Da Rosa, Rosy, Kaká, Zeca, Suzana and Djamila. The 6 dancers on stage and tears of emotion wanting to take my face by assault. These artists are crazy. You have to be crazy to be this lucid, crazy to invent such precise spaces where one can live with neither body nor weight. Only soul and rhythm.”

Abraão Vicente, writer and current Minister of Culture of Cabo Verde – September 2012

“(...) Ruins of what time, of what space, of what creature? (...) five dancers, or rather five bodies on the stage celebrate ruins and humanity with beauty and much music, performed by two major musicians: Mário Lúcio and Sara Tavares. (...) Their latest creation presents fragments of a story in which ruins are presented under various different guises: a mournful chant, deconstruction and an act of maddened love. (...) Raiz di Polon’s latest creation closed the International Theater Festival Mindelact with a golden key.”

Matilde Dias, Kultura (TCV, Cape Verde), October 2003

(“...) Africa and Europe meet in the art and culture of the Cape Verde islands. Mano Preto and his group "Raiz di Polon" tell of these various influences and about the nostalgia of a people without a home, mirrored in the diaspora, in a lyrical piece, lovingly created from Creole fados, poems and rhythmic dances. The technological title "CV Matrix 25" is misleading, for the songs full of longing and the movements of the dancers and musicians communicate a great deal of feeling. The dancers learned European dance in workshops, but maintain their roots and their integrity.”

Hamburger Abendblatt, March 1,2 2003

“(...) Saudade [longing, nostalgia] (...) is central theme in Cape Verdean music and literature. The choreographer Mano Preto also deals with this theme in his piece "CV Matrix 25." (...) The music, composed by Orlando Pantera, gives soul to the characters interpreted by the dancers, who manage to bring together very convincingly the roles of actors, dancers, singers, storytellers and translators. Far from the stereotypes of traditional and ritual dances, the piece "CV Matrix 25" demonstrates that a unique form of contemporary dance is being developed in Cape Verde."

Hamburg, March 2003

“A well-achieved mix of indigenous music and dance forms (...). The company Raiz di Polon presents nostalgic emotions with „CV Matrix 25‟ (...) in proud but at the same time frivolous and sensual dancing, filled with songs and chants (...). The company Raiz di Polon and its choreographer Mano Preto, with their marvelous poem of dance and song ‘CV Matrix 25,’ provided the ideal opening for the PolyZentral festival.”

Die Tageszeitung (Hamburg), March 1, 2003

“Raiz de Polon (Cabo Verde) presented ‘Duas Sem Três.’ Inspired by a text by Mário Lúcio Sousa, the performance utilizes song, words and body to speak of the hard life of day to day existence. On the stage are buckets, brooms and branches, worked with rich illumination. Beginning with a voice speaking about muses whose names “no one ever remembered,” the dancing advances until the grand finale in which the two dancers and creators (Bety Fernandes and Rosy Timas) roll themselves in a gigantic veil and repeat ‘they didn’t marry me’ interminably. Harshness and purity.”

Folha de S. Paulo online (Brazil) 26/08/2003

“Look out for a new generation of talents (...). The group Raiz di Polon is in third place. The work they have developed in the field of dance, their performance and the presentation of their pieces in several international events are some of the reasons that justify A Semana’s choice of Mano Preto’s group as one of the highlights on 2001 in the realm of culture.”

A Semana (Cape Verde) – 28 Dez. 2001

“[...] and the program was opened with a gold key. The company Raiz di Polon, from Cape Verde, presented ‘Pêtu,' a dance performance, but not only that. Africans are known for their innate rhythm [...] what is sure is that they seek out their deepest roots in everything. No less sure was that they quickly realized that they had to open these rhythms and traditions to what was coming in from abroad. This is why today’s African dances go further and spread to other contemporary rhythms and movements. ‘Pêtu’ is an excellent example of this.”

Reconquista (Portugal), Aug. 31, 2001

“The name of Cape Verde’s Raiz di Polon is no longer unfamiliar in Portugal. [...] they performed last December at the Belém Cultural Center. It is this same stage that this week will see the debut of Konquista [...] a work of self-knowledge of the Cape Verdean man, of his history and his personality.”

Visão (Portugal), June 21, 2001

“CV Matrix 25 [...] in the line of new African dance, does not rely only on the history, but also on the extremely beautiful songs of the Cape Verdean people. They play traditional instruments like the pilon [...], iron bars, conch shells [...], and the ubiquitous guitar and ukulele duo.”

Soberania do Povo (Portugal), July 6, 2001

“Cape Verdean company Raiz di Polon [...] responds with ‘Pêtu’ to a worldwide arrogance that ends more to uniform than to universalize.

L’Express de Madagascar (Madagascar), Nov. 9, 2001

“[A] quite stunning mix of dance, song and storytelling. (...) Raiz di Polon, under their director Mano Preto, were certainly something special – and a neat antidote to the pernicious idea that racial purity and indigenous tradition are prerequisites for cultural identity.”

The Western Mail (Wales), February 27, 2003

“(...) an admirable variation of sounds, choreographies and styles.”

Scoop (Senegal), June 6, 2003

“Far from the stereotypes of traditional and ritual dances, the three pieces scheduled (two ‘Pêtu’s and ‘CV Matrix 25’ by the Cape Verdean company Raiz di Polon)...demonstrate how the dancers and choreographers of the new African states have begun to seek to widen their vocabulary.”

Jornal de Notícias (Portugal) Dec. 2, 2000

“From Mano Preto’s company, Raiz di Polon, we saw two pieces: the already familiar ‘Pêtu’ and the brand new ‘CV Matrix 25,’ both sagas of the Cape Verdean people. The importance of the music is not to be neglected in Preto’s dance, for it is what primordially defines the spirit and the history of the characters, interpreted by dancers who are also actors, musicians, singers, reciters, interpreters. Orlando Pantera’s fabulous compositions (alongside extracts

from traditional pieces) integrate us into a very particular and vibrant sphere (...)”

Blitz (Portugal), 12 Dez. 2000

“If you don’t know or have never heard of Raiz di Polon, it is because you probably aren’t very interested in Cape Verdean dance. Mano Preto is a name on the forefront of dance in Cape Verde, with credits abroad, above all in Portugal, where on several occasions he has gone onstage to exhibit his gifts as a dancer.”

Jornal Horizonte (Cape Verde) – Nov. 23, 2000

“Housework... springs to gentle, ambiguous life in the lovely hands of Bety Fernandes and Rosy Timas.”

Evening Standard (London), Nov.11, 2004

“Movement builds in several directions, towards the playful and sensual, the nonchalant, and the frenetic, giving the work a tonal variety that is both convincing and provocative. [...] Elisabethe Fernandes and Rosy Tavares work well as a pair and they have a quirky magnetism about them that allows them to pull off humour well.”

The Stage (London), Nov. 2004

“With acoustic music that brings forth nostalgic melodies, the two dancers were able to transmit to the public their distress, their heartfelt cries in the face of this wait that cannot but last a very long time. [...] A very well achieved and well liked performance.”

Le Quotidien (Senegal), June 2003

A fascinating performance to watch. [...] Bety Fernandes and Rosy Timas, dancers and actresses, seduced more than one member of the audience with the tightness and mastery of their art. On the stage, the Cape Verdean dancers accumulate risks, add to them audacity, multiply provocations and feed the suspense of a public that left the performance joyous and powerfully moved.

Edwige H, Senegal, June 2003

“The sheer talent of the dance troupe was immense. They released a frenzied burst of energy, and dance’s insurmountable capacity to speak directly to one’s fears and hopes. [...] Duas Sem Três called to mind the narrative that springs from human impulse and stays close to it, does not give in to the easier but easily destructive temptation of linear storytelling.”

The East African (Kampala, Nairobi), Feb. 2005

“A breeze of warm air come from afar”

L’Express (Mauritius), March 2005

WORKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a serpente

From Brazil to Cabo Verde, from narrative theater to corporal narrative, Mano Preto transposes the love triangle between two sisters and their husband/brother-in-law into physicality, diagonals, levels, directions and rhythms, using as the connecting thread the songs of Cabo Verdean composer Eugénio Tavares, who was the one, among our troubadours, who best spoke of love, jealousy and improbable outcomes.

The highlights of this re-interpretation of the homonymous play by celebrated Brazilian playwright and novelist Nelson Rodrigues include the consummation of the love triangle, the unhappiness of the couple and the shadow of jealousy liable to lead to unforeseen conclusions, like the passions of Eugénio Tavares on the island of Brava.

Text NELSON RODRIGUES

Artistic direction, choreography and Conception of soundtrack idea MANO PRETO

Dramaturgy and direction of actors/dancers MANO PRETO JOÃO PAULO BRITO RAQUEL MONTEIRO

Actors/dancers and co-creators BETY FERNANDES JÚLIA FURTADO MANO PRETO

Movement research CARLOS OLIVEIRA LUIS VIEIRA JACIKY FILOMENO ROSY TIMAS SUAILA LIMA

Voices RAQUEL ANDRADE ZÉ LUIS TAVARES JOÃO PAULO BRITO RAQUEL MONTEIRO JEFF HESSNEY CARLOS OLIVEIRA

Musical directors JEFF HESSNEY MANO PRETO

Lighting JEFF HESSNEY EDSON FORTES

Original music EUGĒNIO TAVARES JOÃO CIRILO PAULINO VIEIRA MÁRIO LÚCIO JEFF HESSNEY

support RAIZ DI POLON FESTLIP MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES OF CABO VERDE BCN

novembro

This solo by dancer Rosy Timas, “Novembro” (“November”), is a reflection on the emotional duels we wage, the feelings that overcome us but temporarily but that lead to permanent consequences, and the pain one believes to be unbearable.

Choreography and performance Rosy Timas Conception of stage Rosy Timas Set Mano Preto, Rosy Timas Painting Dudu Rodrigues Music Jeff Hessney, Vasco Martins, B. Leza Lighting design Edson Fortes, Jeff Hessney Production Raiz di Polon    

 

 

 

 

 

ben di fora

 

With “Ben di Fora,” Mano Preto brings us a work that results from a specific type of creative process he has tested on various occasions over the past 10 years and which has given rise to electric but at the same time sublime dance pieces such as “Flor d’Acácia” and “Povo das Ilhas,” both, like “Ben di Fora,” performed by a group of dancers that includes both veteran members of Raiz di Polon and more experienced students from the Raiz di Polon dance school.

In “Ben di Fora,” a more experimental reading is made of various typical Cabo Verdean genres (colá, funaná, mazurka, morna, etc.) in which each rhythm is given special, unique attention and a specific dramatic and choreographic treatment, without jeopardizing the cohesion – much less the energy – of the work as a whole. The soundtrack is made up both of songs that have long been a part of the Cabo Verdean repertoire, as well as original compositions penned especially for the piece, and includes musicians and groups such as Bulimundo, Tibau Tavares, Jorge Humberto and Bana.

Conception, Choreography and Direction: Mano Preto (José Brandão) Dancers and Co-Creators: Mano Preto Rosy Timas Luís Vieira Suaila Lima

Music: Tradicional Jorge Humberto Katchás (Bulimundo) Manel d’Novas (na voz de Bana) Paulino Vieira Tibau Tavares Tcheka Lighting: Anselmo Fortes Edson Fortes Photos: Jeff Hessney

cidade velha

 

 

 

The name of the piece “Cidade Velha” is inspired by the town of the same name located some 15 kilometers from the city of Praia, although not, as may at first sight appear to be the case, as a historical site per se, but rather as a tiny geographical and social space, particularly as the choreographer imagines it in the 17th and 18th Centuries, especially during the famines that cyclically assailed Cape Verde from the time of its settlement up until independence.

The disposition of the dancers reflects the smallness of the surroundings and the physical, if not mental, limits imposed on the inhabitants of a town from which there is almost literally no escape – no physical escape, due to the mountains and the sea, which impose clear and immutable limits to “expansion,” and due to the scarcity of connections to the outside world resulting from the decadence of the trade and traffic that had once made Cidade Velha a bustling port; and no mental or spiritual escape, due to the sameness of the daily routine, the oppressing and constant need to find something to eat, the rigidness of social structures that were often imagined but were nonetheless strong.

This lack of escape and the frustration of the little hope that did exist leads one to resignation and, at times, to the option of madness, the only exit left to an individual thirsty for change but lacking the means (and, perhaps, the will power) to make his or her creativity flower personally and materially.

In choreographic and scenographic terms, “Cidade Velha” represents the evolution of Raiz di Polon’s already well-consolidated language, with a greater density of movements juxtaposed against a reduced use of props, which, indeed, are limited to tire inner tubes of various sizes that move about the stage with the dancers during the course of the piece. A greater presence of spoken text, in the form of poems by José Luís Tavares recited by the dancers during the piece, also sets “Cidade Velha” apart from most of Raiz di Polon’s previous works.

 

 

Conception,Choreography ad Direction: Mano Preto (José Brandão)

Texts:

Jeff Hessney

Excerpts of Poems by: José Luís Tavares

Performers:

Luís Vieira Mano Preto

José Rui Mendes Cardoso Carlos Oliveira

Rosy Timas Tavares Susana Quaresma

Music: Mário Lúcio Sousa

Jeff Hessney Fernando “Ndu” Carlos

Kodé di Dona Nha Nácia Gomi

Raiz di Polon Manuel d’Novas

B. Leza

Photos: Jeff Hessney

Heler Paz Moneiro  

caminho  

 

 

Elisabete Fernandes debuted as a choreographer alongside fellow Raiz di Polon dancer Rosy Timas in the creation of the piece “Duas Sem Três” (2002), which won the Special Jury Prize at the 5th edition of the African and Indian Ocean Choreographic Encounters in Antananarivo, Madagascar in 2003 and has been performed in more than 30 different countries.

In September 2007, during a stay in Mindelo, Cape Verde for the Mindelact international theater festival, in which she participated in the creation and presentation of the work “Sob o Sol e a Lua,” by Brazilian choreographer and dancer Carmen Luz, Fernandes began research, alongside Luz, of what would later become the embryo of “Caminho,” her first solo work.

Over the course of the next 12 months, Elisabete Fernandes carried out research in Cape Verde and Portugal to lend body to this embryo, and the piece, with an impeccable soundtrack by percussionist Ndu, premiered at the opening of the 2008 edition of Mindelact.

“Caminho” is a highly personal project that, more than merely telling the “story” of the dancer’s experiences, seeks to transmit the feelings, which often go beyond narrative and reveal much more than a more “factual” telling of her career would be able to, that make up her path and her existence as a woman and dancer.

ARTISTIC DATA

Choreography Elisabete Fernandes Original Music Fernando António Carlos Presentation Text Jeffery Hessney Co-Production Raiz di Polon Companhia de Dança Clara Andermatt Support Ministry of Culture of Cabo Verde Centre Culturel Français - Praia Portuguese Cultural Center / Camões Institute - Praia Executive Production Raiz di Polon Acknowledgements Fernando António Carlos Clara Andermatt Tony Tavares Margarida Mestre Carmen Luz

 

DOM QUIXOTE OF THE ISLANDS        

                                                 

 

 

 

   

 

Dom  Quixote  of  the  Islands    

Quixote liked the wind. And in these parts there were two sides to it: Windward and Leeward. With the winds would come the locusts – those angels of the desert. Windmills were born already tired of the wells that never gave suckle to the earth. And in their old age their only use was to chop the wings off of the locusts. When the wind blew from one direction Quixote would become thin, thin, thin. And from the ingenious nobleman were born many boys eternally thin in time and in space. When the wind blew from the other direction Quixote would turn into Sancho Panza and would look portly, but really wasn’t – he was merely pregnant with many more children fat in space and thin in time.

Quixote liked horses, but since there were none in these parts, he would ride a donkey and let Sancho walk. They would enjoy themselves watching goats walk through the villages with ravines scratched on their fingernails. And Quixote and Sancho were dumbfounded when they found out that those were the goats about which they had heard that fed on paper alone.

And if I rewrite this story in this late century, it is because Cervantes’ first pages, the true and original ones, were eaten by those island goats. Everything that came thereafter is plagiarism and short memory. Thus it is a mere moral imperative that I reconstitute the passage of Don Quixote through these fortunate islands.

Quixote came to the desert islands through a twist of fate, one of those twists that follow fearless travelers. After him Sancho Panza arrived, not necessarily because Quixote invited him, nor necessarily against Quixote’s will, but, in actuality, against Sancho’s own will and on no one’s invitation. Man is also a slave to his memory, Sancho would say, who could no longer figure out where he or the world was. The same phrase was repeated by Quixote, who no longer remembered Sancho was also a human being, if it really was true that we had all descended from apes.

Quixote saw sand, rocks, skirts, setting suns, rising suns, dark bodies, the moon, sometimes full, sometimes empty, recent tiles. Quixote heard voices, cut-off sounds, that made him think about the future. Sancho saw dust, outcrops, sweat from dawn till dusk, dyed bodies, the moon, sometimes diminishing, sometimes diminished. Sancho heard voices, cropped sounds, that made him think about the present. Both felt, however, that the past already lay in the future.

Quixote saw Sancho become a woman in hip-swinging movements. He saw him as a saint in pilgrimages, Carnaval masks, ballroom waltzes, marching feet, boats on the sea, guitars to the chest, knives in hands, shadows in the night, phantoms in dreams, authenticity in gestures, gestures of one and another world (gestures of blessing, of greetings, of pounding mortars in pestles, of slingshots slinging stones, of weaving, of sewing, of ring-around-the-rosy, of fanning fire), and omens when he dreamed of pigeons flying.

And Sancho saw Quixote become converted into half of their own bodies, abandon nobility, admit he was a slave to love for love admitted to a slave, row against the tide, create ties, and tie a knot.

Life is a walk that crosses the path of all rhythms: fast, slow, furtive, face to face, side by side, vertical, above, below, with meetings, rendezvous and missed chances that are fatal because what was once hate has become love where hate was strongest. They tore each other apart, ate one another, killed each other, survived, rebelled, ran away together and from one another and each one into and out of himself. Only then, and for the posterity of them both, did Quixote learn that he and the other were one and the same.

Mário Lúcio Sousa, November 2004

Artistic Data Text, Musical Director and Original Music Mário Lúcio Sousa Artistic Director, Choreography, Set Design, Clothing Mano Preto Performed by Mano Preto Movement Research José Mendes Cardoso Set Construction José Mendes Cardoso Executive Production Jeff Hessney Mano Preto Co-Production Centre Culturel Françaos de Praia Ministry of Culture of Cabo Verde Praia Municipal Goverment

                                 

RUÍNAS VS. HUMANO Silver Medal

5th Francophone Games Niamey, Niger, Dec. 2005

                                    RUÍNAS      What is happening to us, me, you, Praia, Cape Verde, Humanity? Are out minds truly ruined? I’m searching for something?

The fact: These questions nag at me, they nag at you. They’ve conquered out a space in my brain, ruining my, our “peace of mind,” dragging our body back in total and absolute ruin, leaving only two pieces of rag: one that was the cloth you wore with pride at your waist, the other your body with its sunbaked skin, watered with the hope that it would be the last to die.

But deep down, I’m going to scrounge up what remains of our pride in what we are, so that together we can ruin this ruin that nags at me, that nags at us – so that no longer may I feel this “human ruin” present in my brain, in our brains, in the air we breathe, in the joy we feel.

And no longer will the poet say: “Women giving birth in shacks with no hygiene and full of wind” or “with her worn, broken body / an old kerchief on her head,” or “far from my homeland even my joys are sad,” but rather “Everything is beautiful / like God is beautiful,” for “among the saints and the slaves the children on the islands are confused with corners.”

Mano Preto – 2003

Artistic Data Choreography  and  Conception  Mano Preto Musical  Director  Mário Lúcio Sousa Original  Music  Mário Lúcio Sousa Eugénio Tavares Abílio Duarte Jeff Hessney Raiz di Polon Performers  Carlos Oliveira Elisabete Fernandes Djamilson Barreto Luís DaRosa Mário Lúcio Sousa Rosy Tavares Also  participating  in  creation  of  “Ruínas”  was  Sara Tavares    Katá  Research  Sensei Narciso Mascarenhas Rehearsal  Director  in  1st  phase  Christian Duarte Lighting  Design  Carlos Ramos Sound Design Raúl Ribeiro Set  Construction  José Mendes Cardoso Mano Preto Extract  from  the  poem  “Tudo  é  Bonito”  by  Tchalé Figueira Executive  Production  Jeff Hessney and Mano Preto Co-­‐Production  Prins Clauss Fund (Netherlands) Raiz di Polon (Cabo Verde) Support  - European Community

- Praia Municipal Government - Coopération Française / Centre Culturel Français de Praia - Portuguese Cultural Center (Cabo Verde) - Mindelact - RTC – Rádio de Cabo Verde - A Semana - Horizonte - Radio Praia – FM, 94.1 Acknowledgements  Danças na Cidade, Sara Tavares, Any Fonseca, Macki Lima, Ira, Lery, Eira, Suzana, Bates Dance Festival, MAPP – Multi-Arts Project Production, Ramiro Montrond e Família, Centro Cabo-verdiano de Karaté and Solange (Sopa).

 

DUAS SEM TRÊS Special Jury Prize

5th Choreographic Encounters of Africa and the Indian Ocean Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar, Nov. 2003

       

   

 

Women hold a special place in Cape Verde’s culture. In a nation of emigrants, it is the women who maintain traditions and assure survival and continuity. Batuko is an impressive example of the strength of the African woman’s contribution to the culture of the continent. It was from this context that the idea to transform the female imagination into a duet performed by Raiz di Polon’s female dancers emerged. The voice and the use of the body as a musical instrument are also constants in Cape Verdean culture, making possible the de-multiplication of bodily language, of rhythms and of sonorities.

Inspired by the text “Duas sem três,” written by Mário Lúcio Sousa, the dancers create their own universe on stage. During the creative process, the Portuguese choreographer Margarida Mestre oriented the work developed around the relationship between body and voice.

Mark Depputer, Lisbon 2002

                   

 

DUAS SEM TRÊS Their true names no one ever remembered. No one, not even them. One was the Muse of the countryside, the other the Muse of the city. Thus would have it the whims of beauty and the need to compare and disentangle.

News about one or the other spread as their bodies took shape, their breasts began to grow, their hair flew and their hips swung back and forth. They heard it from the avid mouths of men willing to kill the other Muse so that you, the more beautiful of the two, may reign from one end of the island to the other.

Even so, they ignored each other with dedication and loved each other with affected intensity, for they had been born to know nothing more than one another. But, little by little, information began to grow scarce: the men were all called away to war, the strongest of the unfit emigrated, and, when they lost hope, the boys all got married.

With no news, time runs more slowly, and arrives more quickly.

And when, finally, they found themselves face to face as if they stood one and the same before a mirror, the new generation waiting to become old enough to join the army already knew them as the Mute of the city and the Mute of the countryside.

That’s what they call us? Well yes, we have lost that which made people talk about us. Beauty tires and becomes mute.

Of me, they used to say that the moon followed my steps, and that I would attain the pinnacle of beauty on the nights of the full moon. Of me, that I shone more than neon lamps. That when I danced batuko I would spin like a top. I would stop the couples in the disco. I knew the dances of all the islands. I mastered all the ones that were in fashion. I seemed a mermaid. I, a movie actress. Fish eyes. Of American dolls. Amazon. Princess. I knew how to do everything, I did. For me, everything was done. Your watery mouth. You, with your mouth watering. On thick legs I would go to the mountains to gather wood. Jogging through the gardens. Pounding with the pestle to firm my breasts. Ah, the massages they give me. For the dances, hand-made dresses. Rented dresses. The Virgin Mary at the manger. Barbie for Christmas. Tomorrow the muse will sow the seeds. Yes, tomorrow she’ll dance the samba. Wash clothes in the streambed. So as not to ruin the machine. That mule got engaged. She got herself a boyfriend, the slut. The prettiest girl in church yesterday. University elegance. They asked for my hand in marriage, it was published three times in church, I bought a garland, a veil and a Portuguese wedding ring.

They didn’t marry me because... They didn’t marry me because...

Mário Lúcio Sousa, Praia 2002

ARTISTIC DATA Text Mário Lúcio Sousa Choreography Elisabete Fernandes Rosy Timas Original Music Mário Lúcio Sousa Voice and body work orientation Margarida Mestre Lighting Design Carlos Ramos Sound Design Raúl Ribeiro Co-Production Danças na Cidade Raiz di Polon Photography Jorge Gonçalves Executive Production Raiz di Polon Support Centro Cultural de Belém Aarhus Festuge – Denmark Ministry of Culture of Cabo Verde Mindelo Cultural Center Centre Culturel Français de Praia Alliance Française - Mindelo Rádio Praia – FM National Library – Praia IPC – Cultural Promotion Institute RTC Jornal A Semana Acknowledgements DJ Burkam and Sr. Kula Pinto          

CV MATRIX 25

                                               

CV MATRIX 25 CV MATRIX 25 is the saga of a people, the story of the Cabo Verdean who loves his land but whom drought obliges to give up being a farmer, only to emigrate and become a construction worker. It is also, according to Mano Preto, “my modest homage to a number of work implements – the sugar-cane mill, the mortar and pestle, etc. – that have given Cape Verdeans so much joy and sadness.”

The piece makes use not only of the stories of the Cape Verdean people, but also their hauntingly beautiful songs. The dancers sing and play traditional instruments such as pau de colêxa, military drum, conch shell, ferrinho, and, of course, the ubiquitous guitar and cavaquinho duet.

-------------- Someone once said: “The pride of the Cabo Verdean was born from rock.”

I also say: “we were born of the land, of the water, of the wind / of the mountains of Santiago / of the leaves of the banana tree and the corn stalk / of whale hunting / of the basalt on Picos road and the sidewalks of São Bento.”

Mano Preto, Praia Junho de 2000

ARTISTIC DATA

Conception and Choreography Mano Preto Original Music Orlando Pantera Mário Lúcio Sousa Eugénio Tavares João Cirilo Daniel Rocha Mano Preto Performers and Co-Creators Carlos Oliveira Elisabete Fernandes Luís da Rosa Mário Lúcio Sousa Mano Preto (José Brandão) Rosy Timas Lighting Design Carlos Ramos Sound Design Raúl Ribeiro Co-Production Centro Cultural de Belém Danças na Cidade Raiz di Polon Photos Jorge Gonçalves Executive Production Raiz di Polon Support Ministry of Culture of Cabo Verde Centre Culturel Français de Praia Rádio Praia – FM IPC – Cultural Promotion Institute Jornal A Semana Jornal Horizonte RTC