Luiz de Abreu

Luiz de Abreu turns dance into the means to deconstruct racial identities. By having Calixto Neto replay stereotypes linked to the representation of the black body, in particular during the carnival where it is set between exoticism and eroticism, the choreographer turns this cliché back onto itself, the better to mock racist unawareness. In this radical solo, which derides the forms of classic ballet, he deploys a singular choreographic language, through which he refocuses the question of identity when it comes to the body. The violence of his writing then comes over as an urgent approach to the decolonial question, the heritage of slavery and the contemporary relations with domination. Buoyed up by a transgressive humour, the piece stands as an relentless criticism of the inferior condition of Blacks. From penile games to a misappropriation of the national flag, the point here is to see dance as an instrument for a physical liberation having emancipatory effects, a cry which organises the shift between body-object to body-subject.

A graduate of the contemporary dance school Angel Vianna (Rio de Janeiro) and holder of a master’s from the university of Uberlândia, Luiz de Abreu is a choreographer-performer. Mainly turned towards the exploration of stereotypes connected to the black body, his work has been shown in France, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, Cuba, Spain and Brazil, where he lives and works. He has in particular taken part in the Sesc Dance Show in São Paulo and the Mercosur Biennale. His piece O Samba do Crioulo Doido is part of the video-dance collection of the Centre Pompidou.