Bruits Marrons

In Bruits Marrons, Calixto Neto starts a dialogue with Julius Eastman and translates one of the Afro-American musician's hits, Evil Ni**er, through the body. Accompanied by six performers, the Brazilian choreographer updates this radical, percussive work that was far ahead of its time. Incensed at cultural Eurocentrism, homophobia and the racism of his contemporaries, American musician Julius Eastman is known for integrating his convictions into his classical compositions. A former academic, Eastman is a major figure in New York's experimental music scene. This radical pioneer and dilettante was completely destitute at the end of his life. Bruits Marrons offers a choreographic rereading of the composer's protest work. Following on from the samba in Feijoada, Calixto Neto and his dancers now take on the Eastman style: a combination of learned contemporary music and wild arrangements. In the same vein, he uses the piano as a percussive instrument, inviting the performers to subvert this symbol of classical music. The piece invites us to listen to Julius Eastman as the heir to an artistic lineage that stems from Africa, and that gave birth to blues, jazz and R&B in the United States, but also to maracatu, reggae and gwoka further south. Taking the composer's freedom as an example, Calixto Neto invites a community of queer, immigrant and racialized bodies to think about emancipation in the present. As an aesthetic and political piece, Bruits Marrons gives the late musician, who was misunderstood in his time, a symbolic family.

Calixto Neto

Originally from Recife in Brazil, Calixto Neto has been living in France since 2013. He trained in theater at the Federal University of Pernambuco, then in dance with the experimental dance group before taking the master’s degree in choreography at the CCN de Montpellier, where he created the solo petites explosions. A member of Lia Rodrigues’ company from 2007 to 2013, Calixto Neto also performed in pieces by Anne Collod, Mette Ingvartsen, Ève Magot and Luiz de Abreu, whose famous piece O Samba do Crioulo Doido he revived in 2020, as part of the Panorama festival at the CN D. Also in 2020, he directed the films O Samba do Crioulo Doido: règle et compas and Pro Futuro Quilombo. Since 2018, Calixto has created three solos; oh!rage (2018), Outrar, in collaboration with Lia Rodrigues (2021) and IL FAUX (2023), as well as a group piece, Feijoada (2021). He is currently preparing a group piece for autumn 2025 and is an associate artist of the Scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise 2024-2026.