La Ribot
Dançando com a Diferença Happy Island

Under the heading of openness to others, experimentation and sharing, Happy Island (2018) was developed in collaboration with an inclusive dance troop. Carried along by a strong desire for self-expression, each dancer gives us proof of an unbridled freedom, attested to in a collective way.

Happy Island owes its title to the island of Madeira, the home of Dançando com a Diferença, a company composed mainly of performers with disabilities. Five of its dancers accompany La Ribot in a jubilatory show which brings out the freedom of spirit that made such an immediate impact on her when she first came into contact with this unique community. The performance itself is carried out with the simultaneous projection of Raquel Freire’s film on the back wall of the stage, blurring the boundaries between the real and the imaginary. Its effect is one of an insatiable thirst for life, experienced here in all its splendour. Comic and experimental in equal measure, the dramaturgy behind Happy Island transforms into actions the fundamental questions underlying La Ribot’s work. It does this by bringing to the stage processes of integration and apprehension of the other which in turn play a decisive role in shaping the specific choreographies for each performer. The piece, which is both vibrant testimony to life and unadulterated homage to the joy of dance, takes a celebratory look at the unheralded beauty of these emancipated bodies whose driving force stems from their indiscipline.
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Running time : 1h10