2018/19
Messages from Mozambique thematizes the struggle for sovereignty and self-realization in face of Portuguese colonial heritage in an African country.
The work was created on the occasion of ARTT 2018 (Art Residence Taanteatro). It premiered between August 24 and 26 at the National Foundation of Arts in São Paulo and, at the invitation of the Center of Reference of the Dance of the City of São Paulo, integrated the project Cartograpraphy of the Possible.
The creative process carried out by the Mozambican dancer Jorge Ndlozy is based on [des]construction of performance based on [trans]personal mythology, a dramaturgic approach of taanteatro dynamics of the theater.
Dance: Jorge Ndlozy
Dramaturgy, text, set design, costumes: Wolfgang Pannek, Jorge Ndlozy
Choreographic director: Maura Baiocchi
Original music: Gustavo Lemos
Soundtrack: Wolfgang Pannek, Jorge Ndlozy
Timbila and drums (live): Jorge Ndlozy
Lighting: Mônica Cristina Bernardes
Photos: Adriana Carmona
Graphic design: Hiro Okita
In the manner of a rite of passage, the choreographic dramaturgy associates subjectivation dynamics with significant historical periods of Mozambique: pre-colonial (migrations bantu), colonial (arrival, occupation and Portuguese rule) and post-colonial (revolution, civil war and redemocratization).
The work is divided into three scenes: Chibutso, Vona vatile and ThroneBody.
Chibutso brings the spiritual experience of returning to the ancestral land and its rites and includes a pas de deux with the timbila, a traditional Mozambican instrument declared an intangible cultural heritage by the UN. Vona vatile addresses the problem of colonization from the confrontation between the languages of the colonized and the colonizer in the body of the original population. The scene contains chant in the languages Changana and Portuguese, dance and drums. Thronebody problematizes critically the challenges and the seductions of the resumption of power in the postcolonial period.
The choreography draws on immersion in ancestral rituals, re-readings of traditional mozambican dances, studies of poetic and historical texts and seeks singular expressiveness beyond known or strongly established dance styles. The soundtrack consists of original music, timbila and African drums (live) , ambient sounds, waltz and fragments of speeches by Samora Machel, revolutionary leader and first president of Mozambique.