Brazil's 2018 election leads to the creation of full-length dance performance Black Feather
Lamondance artistic director Davi Rodrigues has choreographed what he calls a “slightly spookier spinoff” of Swan Lake
Black Feather by Lamondance.
Lamondance presents Black Feather on April 29 and 30 at 8 pm at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University in North Vancouver
BRAZILIAN-BORN dancer-choreographer Davi Rodrigues, artistic director of Lamondance, remembers how his heart sank upon hearing the outcome of the 2018 presidential election in his home country. Known as the “Trump of the Tropics'', Jair Bolsonaro has, since his win, loosened gun controls and dismantled environmental agencies as deforestation in the Amazon soars; he is attempting to strip away Indigenous rights and has been criticized for his disastrous handling of the pandemic. The right-wing politician’s abuse of power planted the seeds for Black Feather, a full-length piece for Lamondance that is about to have its world premiere.
“Jair Bolsonaro is not a person to run a country,” Rodrigues says in a phone interview with Stir. “When he won, I started to be very scared for the future, for my family, my friends, my country. Brazil is a beautiful, beautiful, rich country. We just need the right person to guide us.
“From that moment of uncertainty, I started to think more and more about how we do have the capacity of giving someone power, and when that person has the power, what will they do with it? They can have the power to run and determine the future of a country,” says Rodrigues, who hails from Brasília. “I really wanted to bring that on-stage—not to talk about politics but to bring the subject of power to the stage.”
Black Feather is the culmination of that desire, a work for 13 dancers that Rodrigues describes as a “slightly spookier spinoff from Swan Lake”. Taking inspiration from the classic ballet’s black swan, the artist wrote the entire storyline for Black Feather in a single evening. “As weird as it sounds, it came to me as if someone from upstairs was just dictating do this, do that, do this, do that, do this, do that,” Rodrigues says in a rapid-fire recollection.
Davi Rodrigues.
Rodrigues was working with the dancers on the piece when COVID hit and has since reimagined much of the choreography, which he says is lyrical and filled with beautiful lifts and partnering, gestures inspired by (but not overtly replicating) the elegant movement of swans. In between songs by the likes of Nina Simone and Clare Maguire are sounds of birds and lush forests filled with life, all to create a distinct world.
The show explores the curse of power, as well as power dynamics and imbalances, through two main characters, one of whom is a mother to twins. It takes unexpected twists and turns, and despite destructive forces that unfurl, the story is ultimately one of hope.
“It’s poetic and transformative,” Rodrigues says. “It’s a volcano of tiny little emotions that we experience in our daily lives. We see injustice, but we also see mothers protecting their kids.”
His own mother shared wise words with him many, many years ago that have stuck with him and that fed into the creation of Black Feather.
“I’ll never forget it: as a little boy, my mom said, ‘Davi, if you really want to know who someone really is, give that person power and see what they will do,’” he recalls. “I want audiences to be transported, to experience the universe of art, dance, and music and go home not feeling life is hard but feeling inspired. We can manage power in the right way and put power in the right hands. It’s fascinating to me that an election inspired me to create such a deep story.”
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