PLAN B

Solo for Maria

Maria is the name of the mother of God, the name of countless mothers and daughters and the name of the dancer on stage. A name, beneath which so many projections of femininity overlap. In the two-part piece Solo for Maria, the leg-amputed performer Maria Tembe dances against constricting rules and societal attributions. Her solo shows how violence inscribes itself into the body, it is also of defiant self-assertion. In this (auto-) biographical choreography, the performer presents the audience with her movement repertoire and exposes her body to their habitual ways of seeing, addressing women’s rights and experiences of violence. By not just evading the audience’s gaze, but also by throwing it back at them with great intensity, Maria creates a space of intense intimacy.
The dancer and actress Maria Domingos Tembe was born in Maputo, Mozambique. She obtained her training in contemporary dance as part of the project (In)Dependence at CulturArte with the choreographers Panaibra Canda (Mozambique), Martial Chazalon (France), Martin Champaut (Canada), Boyzie Cekwana (South Africa) and Carlos Pez (Spain). She has appeared as a dancer in (In)Dependence by Panaibra Gabriel Canda (2007), which toured in Maputo and Lyon as well as Mayotte and Réunion, in Inkomati (des)accord (2009) by Panaibra Canda and Boyzie Cekwana, in Borderlines (2010) and Metamorphoses (2015) by Panaibra Gabriel Canda. As an actress she can be seen in the film de corpo e alma (2010) by Mattheau Bron.
Duration: 35 min.
A production by Panaibra Gabriel Canda / CulturArte.