In her new solo ÄGÔ, Cristina Moura continues her search of identity as a woman, as an artist and as a Brazilian. What happens in today´s world while the body is moving or dancing?

ÄGÔ combines languages and symbols, thinkers and creators as it seeks a body language and a scenic representation that communicates ambiguities and possibilities of a dancing body and the questions, queries and contradictions it raises in the world we live in. Cristina performs a dance of ancestry and contemporaneity, of beauty and ugliness, of fragility and strenght, of meaning and foolishness, of humour and affection.

ÄGÔ reflects the worries, memories and experiences of the choreographer and interpreter herself, taking inspiration from texts by Achille Mbembe, Anna Miranda, Grada Kilomba, Wislawa Szymborska, Angela Davis, Franz Fanon, Edna St. Vicent Milley, Marcelo Yuka, Pedro Rocha and Ailton Krenak. The performance is visually inspired by African artists Cyrus Kabiru, Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou, Zanele Muholi, Aida Muluneh, among others.

The scenic dramaturgy intends to be a provocation, a call for reflection on issues of today´s world and its changes.

In ÄGÔ, Cristina visits a space where she does not need to affirm what she is.

Duration: approx. 60 min.

Showing of the work-in-progress at the Festival Entredança 2019 at SESC Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro / May 2019. Avant-premier at SESC Consolação-Sala Beta, São Paulo / November-December 2019.Premiere at the Festival Viva Dança in Salvador, Bahia / April 2020 (was postponed due to Covid-19).

ÄGÔ is nominated in the category “best dance performance of the year” for the prize Cesgranrio de Dança Rio de Janeiro, 2019.

ÄGÔ is nominated in the category “best choreography/creation” for the APCA Dance Prize 2019.

ÄGÔ was selected by O Globo, the biggest daily newspaper in Brazil, as highlight of the season 2019.

As „a duet with myself“ is how Brazilian choreographer and dancer Cristina Moura describes her charming and provocative solo Like an Idiot. Vulnerable and almost naked, she steps into the limelight and exposes herself to the eyes of strangers and to her own questions. Prompted by various impulses – a movement, a melody, a subjective emotion or a concrete object such as a children’s bobby car or a bottle of water – she sets out to find her identity as a woman, as an artist and as a black Brazilian. The association space is wide open – topics such as abuse, the beauty industry, street children, violence and sex brew up in the mind of the audience to a strong mass of content. It is a disturbing performance in which Cristina transforms into different states and figures, from the child who builds his likeness out of paper to the stereotype of the sexy woman or the confused and neglected man on the street. She plays, she dances, she talks, she exposes herself to a bombardment of questions from the off. „I will not cry anymore“, one hears over and over. But also “I’m strong. I’m awake. I’m creative. I´m weak. I´m a superman. I hold on for another day. I’m strong. I accept. I do not expect“. “Like an idiot can be interpreted in many ways,” says Cristina, and admits that this piece, which she has performed all over the world, takes her to her personal limits. She created this „choreographic self assessment“ upon her return to Brazil from Europe where she had danced with renowned artists and companies such as João Fiadero and Les Ballets C. de la B.

Duration: 50 min.