Marlene Monteiro Freitas D’ivoire et chair – les statues souffrent aussi

[Dance]

D’ivoire et chair – les statues souffrent aussi, a concentration of Marlene Monteiro Freitas’s work with the body, serves as a gender study of visually stunning proportions. In it, the statue-like soloists become the guardians of an extraordinary kingdom. A true work of art.

D’ivoire et chair, a story within a story, comprised of transgressions, deaths and limitless desire, immediately places itself under the aegis of Ovid and his Metamorphoses. In the eyes of Marlene Monteiro Freitas, similar to these body-statues, anything and everything is a source of resurrection. With silent screams coming from their wide-open mouths, contorted faces, and eyes rolled upwards, the performers embark upon a form of ritual. The choreographer draws upon her interest in focal points, dwindling and shrinking all the while, thereby amplifying the performer’s gestures.
“Sometimes it might take a fully exposed body or a gaping wound in order to bring out a minute detail “. Enveloped by different-sounding notes, such as Feelings, a hit song played to over-the-top effect, or Arcade Fire – and the aptly penned My body is a cage –, these “petrified“ bodies take the stage by storm, at the risk of turning it upside-down. “The stage is a place for putting frontiers in danger“, as Marlene Monteiro Freitas likes to remind us. Which is precisely what D’ivoire et chair does.