PLAN B

KITCHEN TALK #7: CRISIS UPON CRISIS – a conversation

Everything was and is still urgent, we live under pressure and urgency, we are constantly in crisis and when one seems to pass, another one follows. Despite all crises, there is a life that must continue, and in its precariousness, life continues to be a source for other industries that grow and widen the inequality gap. We hope that this crisis we are currently experiencing can bring out another way of being; we need to walk together, care more for the body, both our own and the other´s. More than ever we need to overcome the Covid19 pandemic, the hunger pandemic, the malaria pandemic, racism and other inequalities, and rethink a new and contemporary "body" which allows  us to stay alive and to survive in a world turned upside down. How can we not give up, when every day we are confronted with the forces of chaos and haunted by disasters and atrocities… Lia will be speaking from Marés "favela", where she continues working, and Panaibra from Maputo, where his work is based.

Panaibra Gabriel Canda, born in Maputo, Mozambique, is one of the most influential choreographers in Africa who reflects the country’s postcolonial upheavals as ambiguously as no other. He studied theatre, dance and music in Mozambique and Portugal. Since 1993, he develops his own artistic projects. His work has been presented all around the world and has won distinct prizes.
In 1998 he founded CulturArte – Cultura e Arte em Movimento, perhaps the first and only production space for contemporary dance in Mozambique. Panaibra´s dedication as artistic director and choregrapher lies in supporting and developing the local and regional dance scene, including creations, performances and training programmes. He also develops collaborations with artists in southern Africa and Europe as well as collaborating with artists of other disciplines. Panaibra has been working for 25 years as a dancer and choreographer in Maputo and the rest of the world. In his numerous guest appearances at European Festivals, one is always reminded that intellectually grounded dance does not necessarily have to be boring, but can be dynamic and humorous. Panaibra’s famous Marrabenta Solos  describe the political development of his country since its independence through body language, show the communist, the totalitarian, the democratic body either pure or as advanced mixed form. Panaibra was distinguished in 2017 by the prestigious German magazine TANZ together with 30 other international artists as “New Promise for the Future of Dance”.

Lia Rodrigues, born and raised in São Paulo, lived and worked in Paris during the 1980s (with Maguy Marin among others) before returning to Brazil where she founded in 1990 her company Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças and in 1992 the dance festival Panorama RioArte, today called Festival Panorama da Dança, which she directed until 2004. With her decision to move her company’s rehearsal centre to Maré, one of the toughest favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Lia made a political and artistic stand against racism and social segregation. Since 2004, her company has been based in the Maré favela, where she founded the Maré Arts Centre and the Free Dance School of Maré in partnership with the Redes de Maré association. Her pieces have toured extensively worldwide. Some would say she’s the head of the Brazilian dance scene.
In 2005, she was honoured Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres; she received in 2014 the Prince Claus Foundation Award, in 2016 the SACD-choreography Award and in 2021 the German Catholics' Art and Culture Award.
In 2021, the renowned Festival d’Automne in Paris granted her with her first “portrait”, a focus on her whole career. Powerful and committed works from her repertory, as well as a new creation, Encantado, dialogued with a series of brazilian artists who, in the eyes of Lia, constitute the richness of the country's choreographic scene
With the Covid-19 impacting particularly heavily on Brazil, the choreographer, committed to the democratisation of art in her country, asked herself the question of how we could “enchant our fears” in order to recreate a dynamic collective and bring individuals closer together. In doing so, Encantado is an invitation to return to natural sources of strength, in search of images, landscapes and movements which journey from one body to the next.