Frederico Paredes

In the form of a choreographic essay, Frederico Paredes approaches the colonial issue through the figure of the sparrow, which is both an intruder into towns and an aggressor towards other bird species, in particular the tico-tico. Imported into Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century, this bird in this case becomes a symbolic, alien body, raising questions about the difficulty of living together, the mechanisms of rejection and aggression, or the way in which benevolence runs up against the violence of today’s Brazilian cities. On a bare scene, which is turn by turn an avenue in Rio and the Amazonian forest, Frederico Paredes goes back over the way in which urbanistic choices convey relationships with colonial, economic or social domination. As an improvised guide, he connects gestures to a discourse, mingling together anecdotes, descriptions of landscapes and recordings of song, with birds in a “meta-choreographic” form, behind which the struggle for territory appears as a swingeing metaphor for art and the current state of Brazil.

Frederico Paredes is an actor, singer, dancer and choreographer. A graduate of the Escola e Faculdade Angel Vianna, where he now teaches. Between 1995 and 2005, he conducted with Gustavo Ciríaco a research project into humour in dance: Dupla de Dança Ikswalsinats. Well-known since Um só Trio (1999) for his solos and pieces for small groups, performed both in Brazil and in Europe, he collaborates with a large number of artists, such as Lia Rodrigues, João Saldanha, Esther Weitzman, Marcela Levi, Lilian Zaremba and Tunga.