“If the Black body at rest is suspicious and when in movement a threat, Pontes and Ferreira find within this choreographic act possible strategies to re-elaborate imaginaries, proposing changes in the symbolic meanings of the Black presence in a world that is not yet able to grant these lives existence and dignity.” – Maria Luiza Meneses – translated from Portuguese by Philip Somervell
Repertório N.1 is the final piece of a trilogy by Brazilian artists Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira. Drawing on postcolonial, gender and race studies, the Repertório trilogy, a long-term performance project, interrogates the mechanisms of brutality and attempts to dismantle them. Through a vocabulary of poses, gestures and collective actions, Repertório N.1 creates an experimental space where the body becomes a site of protection, carrying histories, pleasures and vulnerabilities into the performance space.
CREDITS
Concept and performance
Davi Pontes
Wallace Ferreira
Co-commissioned by
Serpentine Galleries
Dance Umbrella
Something Great
Wiener Festwochen
Arsenic
Viernulvier
Festival DDD/ Teatro Municipal do Porto
Management and Distribution
Something Great
BIOGRAPHIES
Davi Pontes is an artist, choreographer, and researcher. Graduated in arts from the Universidade Federal Fluminense and holds a Master’s degree in arts from the same institution. He studied at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo ESMAE (Porto, Portugal). Since 2016, he has presented his work in art galleries and national and international festivals, mainly at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), My Wild Flag (Stockholm), Pivô (São Paulo), Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), Rua das Gaivotas 6 (Porto), Bienal Sesc de Dança, MITsp – Mostra Internacional de Teatro de São Paulo, Les Urbaines festival (Switzerland), Galeria Vermelho (São Paulo), Valongo International Image Festival (São Paulo), Itaú Cultural Rumos Program 2021, Panorama Festival (Rio de Janeiro), 5th Itaú Cultural Dance Exhibition (São Paulo), Artfizz – HOA Gallery (USA), and residencies at ImPulsTanz 2022 [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series (Austria), La Becque (Switzerland), Pivô Art Research Program, MAM Rio Arts Research Residency Program, and Escola Livre de Artes – ELÃ among others. Awarded artist at ImPulsTanz – Young Choreographers’ Award, 2022 (Austria).
Wallace Ferreira is a choreographer, performer and visual artist. She graduated from the Escola Livre de Artes da Maré (ELÃ) and the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage. She is the winner of the ImPulsTanz – Young Choreographers’ Award 2022 and the FOCO ARTRIO Award 2024. Through interdisciplinary practices, her creations provoke ruptures between dance, performance, visual arts, and the study of images choreographed by dissident bodies, attempting to archive actions that elaborate resistance and summon ways of remaining in the world. Moved by the challenges of tensing the present, since 2018 she has presented her works in art galleries, national and international festivals. In collaboration with artist Davi Pontes, she develops the choreographic practice trilogy Repertório, which explores dance as a form of self-defence training. Within the Ballroom/Vogue culture, she holds the title of Legendary Mother of the Kiki House of Mamba Negra. She is also the director of the pieces ATRAQUE and Vogue Funk, creating spaces through practices that activate the body as a historical agent, repositioning naturalised codes in social spheres and articulating strategies to subvert established languages.