Ladies Aboard

yesterday was the first day that we had women with us rehearsing Fora das Correntes. little more than a week ahead of our first work-in-progress presentation i begin to curse myself for sticking so stubbornly to my ways. an idea struck me some time ago, which went something like this:

women came late to capoeira. having been quietly supporting the men who played, over the years, it was only aroung the 1960s that they began to play a significant part in the game. so something in me decided it would be wise to bring a group of women late into our process too. hmmmm…..

so join us they did – shanta, ebony and mel adding a grand touch of class to the little play we are tentatively (or sometimes rather obstreperously) building. they astonished me by leaping in wholeheartedly to take up the roles of the narrators as well as joining in creating images for the second half of the play.

the material we are working with swings from highly energetic and cartoon-comical, to deep, dark and extremely heavy. it’s interesting how the work on the lighter moments can be concentrated and serious, but as we get further entrenched in heavier material there is a faint hysteria bubbling below the surface.

there are things in the piece we are all tentative about telling. how can we show the journey of the people on the slave ships without diminishing the magnitude of what they suffered? the answer we collectively found was to be less literal – how can you show with your body how it might have felt? we are asking the audience to do a good deal of work along with us. i hope that they are able to fill in the gaps with their own imaginations.

we have nearly reached the end of the story as we are telling it, and tomorrow should have a rough structure for the whole piece. mestre poncianinho will be joining us to help us with the movement, particularly the dynamic of the games that are played throughout, so that they are appropriate to the point in time at which they are being played.

we nearly have all the musicians on board now, and with another 14 hours of rehearsal ahead of us i feel that we will have a good solid chunk of work to show on the 21st april.

all we can do thereafter is push hard to get sponsors and partners on board so that we can continue our exploration and create a full-length piece later in the year.

CAPOEIRA: Fora das Correntes

so, the first-coming of our new ventures is this:

CAPOEIRA: Fora das Correntes.

seats are very limited but free, so if you are interested in seeing a work-in-progress devised piece of physical theatre about this entrancing form, please let us know. we shall be supplying caipirinhas, nibbles, and a select after-party somewhere slick. watch for more details…

the first great news is that we already have potential bookings for shows later in the year, but they are likely, intially, to be at private events. we’ll also be filming the piece, so will have snippets up to see before longly long.

the process has been a tumultuous affair (well you try scheduling 11 capoeiristas who are working for free!) but illuminating on many aspects of the form. as director my days have been spent reading, watching, listening to and playing it more than ever before. at times i feel more connected than ever too, at others i feel that the history is weighing down so heavily that the game seems foreign, other. there have been times when i have felt very lost to the form, and it to me. but as we are peering over another little ledge in time the picture shifts back into focus and a path suggests itself. for such is the way of the game.

the group is such a unique mixture of schools and styles – students and teachers from Cordao de Ouro, Kabula, Filhos da Bimba, Senzala and the streets of Rio de Janeiro – that i wonder if such a group has ever made such a thing before. there are people who, aside from capoeira, have never performed before – and others who perform all the time. so when we came to pull together what we’d made during the intial workshops, and when scenes just came bounding out of images, and charcters out of scenes, i could barely contain myself for joy.

what we are giving is a snap-shot of various moments in capoeira’s clangingly dark and dense history, and it looks to me at the moment as if they may well come to life. but then, with the material, the movement, the music and the mastery that we are playing with here, something has to live.

and this is almost my favourite part of it: it feels as though the creation now has very little to do with me. we have been playing together for several weeks – only once a week it has to be said, and we are yet to get the whole group together in the same room (aaaaiiiieeee!) – but the group has such a fine awareness of eachother and of the characters and situations that it needs little promoting from me or my sketch-of-a-script before it whirls into life.

a good example of this was when i had an image written down and said “we want to show this person” (Mestre Bimba as it happens, one of capoeira’s greatest characters and therefore extremely challenging to depict on stage) and one of the actors said “we just play the toque, and look to where he would be standing. but he’s invisible. we can’t show him onstage”. and this is more-or-less exactly what i had written down. i think this is when you know an idea is a good one – when someone else has it independently of you.

so, with only a few hours remaining there is still a long way to go. this sunday our group of women join us for the first time (it was an insane decision to leave it so late for them to join “because that’s how it happened in real life”. da licenca!) and we will work our way, roughly, to the end. on tuesday Mestre Poncianinho will visit to lend his eye to the movement as we polish what exists so far. the following sunday we will add music from our mini-bateria, and then on monday we work with tech.

it somehow seems very far way, though it is only now 12 days. but in the development of the piece, and in the learning that will be done along the way, it’s somehow still quite a considerable amount of time.

i hope that you will join us on the 21st – just shout for a seat to be saved.

warm wishes e um pouco de malandragem,

imogen/ resistencia/ patsy’s bestest friend xXx