Maura Baiocchi | Taanteatro EN

Founding-director of Taanteatro Companhia

Founding director of Taanteatro Company (*1991) and the International Ecoperformance Film Festival (*2021). Creator of the Taanteatro methodology (choreographic theater of tensions). Pioneer of Butoh dance in Brazil. Master’s degree in Communication and Semiotics from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC). with the dissertation “Body and communication in process: the tension principle in the Taanteatro experience”.

Brief Trajectory

Maura Baiocchi is a Brazilian dancer, choreographer, teacher, and researcher with an international career in Germany, Argentina, Belgium, the United States, France, England, Japan, Mozambique, and Russia.

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Born in Paraná in 1956, she began her dance studies (ballet, jazz, modern dance, dance-theater, Laban) in 1969 in Brasília. From 1978 onwards, she performed professionally as a dancer in works by Hugo Rodas and Regina Miranda. In the early 1980s, she premiered her first choreographies at the Cláudio Santoro National Theatre (DF), among them Bumerangue (1982), cited by Correio Braziliense as one of the 50 Performances that marked Brasília. From 1984 to 1986, before studying Butoh dance in Japan (1987) with Kazuo Ohno and Min Tanaka, Baiocchi taught dance at the University of Brasília and at Faculdade Dulcina.

In 1990, she was invited by theatre director Antunes Filho to choreograph for the Sesc Theatre Research Center (CPT). She established residence in São Paulo where she opened the Taantécnica Butoh Nucleus. In 1991, her proposal Taanteatro: A Research for the Transformation of Dance was awarded the Vitae Art Grants.

With members of his core group, Baiocchi founded the Taanteatro Company and premiered Frida Kahlo: A Woman of Stone Gives Light to the Night* (TUCA, 1991) and *Alice’s Book of the Dead* (Sesc Pompeia, 1992).

In the following decades, she created and staged more than 80 choreographies and performances, developed, refined, and documented the choreographic theater of tensions, and disseminated her work and artistic training methodology in countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

In addition to his work with the Taanteatro Company, which includes organizing shows, festivals, international collaborations, and exhibitions, Baiocchi works in film and music videos for musical composers and fashion designers. He choreographs for theatrical productions, including Os Sertões (2002-04) a Teatro Oficina produçtion directed by José Celso Martinez Correia.

As an author, she published Butoh Dança Veredas D’Alma [Butoh Dance Path of the Soul] (1995), the first book on Butoh dance in Portuguese, and wrote seven volumes on her own research, including Taanteatro: Teatro Coreográfico de Tensões (2007) and Choreographic Theater of Tensions: Forces & Forms (2020) prefaced by Hans-Thies Lehmann.

The concept-practice of ecoperformance, coined by Baiocchi in 2008 and developed in collaboration with Wolfgang Pannek, gained national and international artistic and academic recognition through the creation of performances, films, publications, forums, and, from 2021 onwards, the annual International Ecoperformance Film Festival.

The projects of Maura Baiocchi and Taanteatro Company have been supported by programs, awards, and sponsorships at the municipal, state, federal, and international levels (Funarte Klauss Vianna Dance Award, Contemporary Dance Award, APCA Award, Denilto Gomes Award, Hinoemata Performance Festival, Environmental Dance Prize).

WORKS

SOLOS
2016 ARTAUD, LE MÔMO – Theater Aliança Francesa – São Paulo – Brazil
2014 TRANS – Freud Museum of Dreams – Saint Petersburg – Russia
2009 DAN ancestral becoming – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil – Brasília 2002 SUBMERGE – Chashama Theater – New York City/EUA
2002 Webshaman – mandala dance of the ancestral body 2000 Matter State of Potency – Instituto Goethe – São Paulo
1999 Matter 3rd form – Teatro FUNDAJ – Recife
1999 Matter 2nd form – Strasbourg/França
1999 Matter 1st form – Theater Plan B – Tokyo/Japan
1998 Matter 1st form – Goethe Institute -São Paulo
1991 Frida Kahlo – a stone woman gives birth to the night – Teatro Tuca – São Paulo
1990 Absolutes – Teatro Crowne Plaza – São Paulo
1990 Ophelia Subtraction – Teatro Crowne Plaza – São Paulo
1990 Himalaya – Teatro Crowne Plaza – São Paulo
1990 Behring Strait – Teatro Crowne Plaza – São Paulo
1990 The bride frightened at seeing life opened
1989 The day the wall fell
1988 Variation in black – National Theater of Brasília
1988 Variation in white – National Theater of Brasília
1988 Brasília Bride
1988 Isadora Duncan and the Bull, Marta Graham in the Forest, and Pina Bausch Sleeping
1988 When the butterflies get lost – transparent dances – National Theater of Brasília
1987 Spiral line – Gallery Space- Tóquio/Japão
1987 Voice phrase – Theater Seibu 200 – Tóquio/Japão
1987 Between the sword and the wall – Hinoemata Festival /Japão
1987 Three Daughters and a Water-eye: Yemoja, Oya and Oshum – Therpiscore Theater – Tokyo/Japan
1985 Outsider
1985 Spiral line – Sala Saltimbancos – Brasília
1985 Radical solitude
1985 Critical point
1985 Spiral – UnB – Brasília
1984 The Gift of the butterfly
1984 Water-eye – Cultura Inglesa – Brasília
1983 The owner of the keys
1981 Candomblé – School of Music – Brasília

GROUP WORKS
2022 APOKÁLYPSIS – National Foundation of Arts São Paulo
2017 1001 PLATEAUX – Theater Aliança Francesa (direction of choreography) – São Paulo
2017 Desert… – Reference Center of Dance of São Paulo
2017 Verbing – Reference Center of Dance of São Paulo
2016 InBetweens – São Paulo Theatre School – São Paulo
2015 cARTAUDgraphy 1: A Correspondence
2015 cARTAUDgraphy 2: Voyage to Mexico
2015 cARTAUDgraphy 3: Return of the Momo
2013 Androgyne – consecration of fire
2012 [Im]Pure Dances – Galeria Olido -São Paulo
2009 !Zaratustra! – Teatro da Caixa – Brasília
2007 Frida Kahlo – a stone woman gives birth to the night (trio) – Galeria Olido -São Paulo
2007 New presences – Galeria Olido -São Paulo
2007 The loneliest hour – urban intervention– São Paul
2006 Feifei and the origin of love – Teatro João Caetano – São Paulo
2006 Zarathustra Machine – Teatro João Caetano – São Paulo
2005 Xiphamanine – Cine-Teatro Áfr – Maputo, Mozambique
2004 Cardioconnections – Teatro Sesi – São Paulo
2004 Premonitary Performances – Galeria do Vidro – São Paulo
2004 Matter 4th State – Kuba Vegesack – Bremen/Germany
2004 Matter State of Potency– Galeria Olido -São Paulo
2001 Thus spoke Zarathustra 4th part – Funarte – São Paulo
2001 Frida Kahlo – A Stone Woman Gives Birth to the Night (duo) – Funarte – São Paulo
2000 MatterDeath – Sala de las Americas – Córdoba, Argentina
2000 Matter – State of Potency – São Paulo
1999 MatterLove – MIS – São Paulo
1999 Chants of Maldoror – Funarte – São Paulo
1997 !Arará! Stories that the bones sing – Teatro Hilton – São Paulo
1996 Artaud – where god runs with eyes of a blind woman – Teatro MASP – São Paulo
1996 I: a chips opera – New Dance Studio – São Paulo
1995 Month of Maya (urban intervention)
1994 Variation for ball, Shiva and Magdalene -Teatro Sesi – Sorocaba
1992 Alice’s book of the dead – transitional dances – Teatro SESC Pompeii – São Paulo
1993 At the foot of the mountain – Memorial da America Latina
1993 Variation for ball and Shiva
1991 Month of Maya (Mês de Maya)
1991 The square laughing – Teatro SESC Pompeii – São Paulo
1991 The terrible – urban intervention
1990 The bride frightened at seeing life opened – Teatro Vento Forte – São Paulo
1988 When the butterflies get lost – transparent dances (duo) – National Theater fo Brasilia
1986 Du-El (2nd version) – National Theater fo Brasilia
1986 Invisible connection – National Theater fo Brasilia
1986 Nostalgia tradition – National Theater fo Brasilia
1986 Connection and disconnection – - National Theater fo Brasilia
1984 Duo
1984 Cristovam my love or to create desire
1985 Du-El (1st version)
1985 Static-Extatic
1982 Boomerang – National Theater fo Brasilia
1981 Chaplinlewisniana – National Theater fo Brasilia
1981 Earth – National Theater of Brasilia

CINEMA
2021 Antonin Artaud’s The Theatre and the Plague – Feature Film – Director: Wolfgang Pannek
2014 Grammatyka – Short Film – Director: Paloma Rocha
2009 The End of the Sting – Feature Film – Director: Christian Saghaar
1998 Impressions for Clara – Short Film – Director: Joel Yamagi
1996 Vampa’s Eyes – Feature Film – Director: Walter Rogério
1991 Nayara – the Gorilla Woman – Short Film – Director: Marta Nassar

VIDEO
2023 Flesh and Earth – Director: Diogo Nazaré
2022 Maura Baiocchi Dances Luzia – Director: Wolfgang Pannek
2021 Apokálypsis – Directors: Maura Baiocchi, Wolfgang Pannek
2020 Rising Phoenix – Director: Sepideh Ahadi
2020 CO|R|PO – Director: Maura Baiocchi
2012 DAN ancestral becoming – Short film – Directed by: Maura Baiocchi