Brazilian choreographer Andressa Miyazato proudly presents Urutau, a collaboration with the Amazonas Dance Company. Based in the heart of the Amazon Forest, the company showcases the profound ancestral connection of its 23 skilled dancers in a piece that embodies gentle yet poignant resistance and reclamation of the power of place.
Once the wealthiest city in South America, Manaus stretches along the majestic Black River and is home to the world-renowned Teatro do Amazonas. Like many port cities in the Global South, Manaus knows what it is to be loved and then forgotten by European colonial powers. The baroque theater, a prominent relic of the prosperity driven by the late 19th-century rubber boom, stands as a testament to a past marked by both abundance and exploitation. Ravaged by this first wave of extractivism which brought deforestation and genocide in its wake, the great Forest continues to be endangered as relentless exploitation plagues its fate.
In the process with the company, memories and acknowledgment of the effects of colonialism on the bodies of the forest and its people opened the way to an investigation of alternative ways of existing. If silenced histories can gain new meaning through dance, what the dancers’ bodies hold and make visible deserves careful, respectful attention.
The resulting piece gives the audience an opportunity to witness the bodies that are the land, standing in their power while defying the exoticizing gaze. In a dance that eschews balance and stasis in favor of endless flow, an irresistible pulse of alternative modes of existence emerges. By slowing the pace of action, the work proposes a commitment to the beauty of exerting minimal impact on our surroundings.
Drawing on the camouflage abilities of the nocturnal bird Urutau, Miyazato encourages the dancers to engage in a continuous state of appearing and disappearing, creating distance and reconvening. This process reclaims agency in being off-balance, existing outside the
conventional axis of attention, and bearing witness to the cycles of death and rebirth that post-colonial worlds demand.
In examining the interplay between colonial heritage and choreographic practices, Urutau offers a situated dance that issues a calling to artist-bodies which remember off-center as a place. It highlights the urgent need to expand our capacity to embrace complexity, acknowledging the irreparable harm inflicted upon peoples while honoring the specificity of their voices.
—Luiza Moraes
Concept and Choreography
Andressa Miyazato
Original Soundtrack
Fabio Cardia
Movement Collaboration
CDA Dance Ensemble
Visuals
Jonatan Salgado Romero
Lighting and Set Design
Marcelo Zamora
Costume Design
Ian Queiroz
Choreography Assistant
Paulo Chamone
Dramaturgy
Luiza de Moraes
Production, Lighting Setup, and Operation
Wallace Heldon
Production Assistant
Eduardo Klinsmann
Costume and Set Workshop
Mara Ribeiro
CORPO DE DANÇA DO AMAZONAS
Artistic Director
Mário Nascimento
Artistic Producer
Wallace Heldon
Ballet Rehearsal Director and Teacher
Paulo Chamone
Choreography Assistant
Helen Rojas
Physical Conditioning Teacher
Liene Neves
Inspector
Eduardo Klinsmann
Physical Therapist
Danilo Mattos
Physical Therapy Intern
Lívia Barbosa
Pianist
Celly Monteiro Mendes
Dancers: Adailton Santos, Adriana Goes, Cléia Santos, Frank Willian, Felipe Cassiano, Gabriela Lima, Helen Rojas, Huana Viana, Ian Queiroz, Julio Galúcio, Larissa Cavalcante, Liene Neves, Luan Cristian, Marcos Felipe, Pammela Fernandes, Rodrigo Vieira, Rosi Rosa, Sumaia Farias, Talita Torres, Thaís Camillo, Valdo Malaq, Victor Venâncio, Wellington Alves.
video by Jonatan Salgado Romero
Andressa Miyazato 