In CARCAÇA, Marco da Silva Ferreira uses dance as a research tool for community, the construction of collective identity, memory and cultural stagnation. The choreography, which initially starts with jumping footwork as an agitator and accelerator, progressively draws a vibrant, rebellious and carnivalesque body.

A cast of 10 performers form a collective that researches their collective identity in a physical, intuitive and unpretentious flow of the body through dance and culture. They start with familiar footwork, coming from clubbing, ballroom, cypher battles and the studio to approach standardized and immutable folk dances related to their memory and heritage.

These dances were stuck in the past, unable to integrate with new definitions of bodies, groups and underrepresented communities. It was necessary to break with the authoritarian, totalitarian and paternalistic past and in CARCAÇA, an exercise that integrates the past and the present is proposed.

The performance suggests we think about the following things:
How do you decide to forget and make memory? What are the roles of individual identities in building a community? What is the driving force behind identity? What world is the individual and collective body going through? Or, rather, what bodies are crossing the world?

The steps, complex but performed in trainers, bring not only the sound to the stage, but also the exchanges between kinetic, thermal and light energy. The physical sounds are accompanied by drums played by João Pais Filipe and electronic music by Luis Pestana. These elements, performed live, constitute an accelerated soundtrack that interconnects references from traditional music (fanfares and marches) with postmodern music and clubbing music (techno, trance and dub).

In 2020 the creation of CORPOS DE BAILE for Companhia Nacional de Bailado was the beginning of this research on collective identity and footwork, which inspired the creation of CARCAÇA.

About the contender:

Marco da Silva Ferreira was a professional swimmer, prior to discovering street dance in his hometown at the age of 16. He received a degree in physiotherapy before fully dedicating himself to dance, first as a dancer and then as a choreographer from 2015. It was after winning the Portuguese version of So You Think You Can Dance that Marco moved from commercial to contemporary dance, working with acclaimed choreographers such as Hofesh Shechter.

Co-presented by Sadler’s Wells, Dance Umbrella and Big Pulse Dance Alliance.

Image description: Ten performers wearing black tightly fitting clothes strike individual poses. The poses are contained, with arms staying close to their bodies and gaze focused near to the performers or out to the camera. It is as if they are all performing their own dance.
Header image © José Caldeira