A workshop I attended "Dance that defies definition"

by Shonali Muthalaly , Saturday, Sep 29, 2007
Marcia Barcellos was restless. So she left her home in Brazil almost 30 years ago, searching for something she couldn’t really define. Now she’s a dancer, choreographer and co-founder of the contemporary French dance company System Casta fiore. Doing something she can’t really define.
“Sometimes, critics say it is not dance. Well. We are dancers, so it’s dance, right? You have theatre without words, but still it is theatre,” she shrugs expressively, flailing her arms about at the Alliance Francaise auditorium after a workshop with a group of city dancers. “I work with dancers, I’m a choreographer. Actors cannot do what we do. But, it’s everything at the same time. Not only movement, not only theatre. Also lights, costumes, sounds… I don’t ask myself what it is. Dance. Theatre. Mime. Whatever… I don’t care,” she says, adding definitively, “This is what we do.”
So, what do they actually do? Well, from an audience’s point of view, it looks deceptively easy. Exaggerated movements, caricatures of people, over-the-top costumes, all meticulously choreographed to tailored music, all telling a story — whether it’s a Greek epic soaked in high drama or a funny sketch of a vain swain next door.
The truth is it takes immense patience, strenuous practice and unbelievable flexibility. Denis Giuliani, also from System Castafiore, goes into the greenroom in arty black and comes out transformed into a loud, bumbling French man who looked like he had just eaten Denis. His enormous navy blue pants stretch across a huge, wobbly stomach and are held in place by suspenders. “Just three weeks in Madras and look at him!” giggles Marcia. He begins a comic sketch set to music, portraying a pop-eyed, irritable football ground watchman, vigorously running through the entire gamut of emotions and expressions in just a matter of five minutes. All in perfect synchronisation to the music.
Inspired by real life
“We’re inspired by regular human behaviour,” says Denis, catching his breath once he concludes. “I start from real life. Look at someone who’s funny in the street,” he says, imitating a macho man admiring his pumped up arm muscles, and wiggling his eyebrows at passing girls.
“The steps, we invent them,” says Marcia, “It involves searching, which for us means doing things: taking photos, making experimental films, reading, travelling, learning. The choreography and music are the last details.” This search is what brought them from Grasse in France, where the company is based, to India. “We met someone from Kalakshetra and asked the French government to sponsor us,” says Marcia. “We’re attending classes in yoga, Carnatic music, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi… trying to absorb as much as we can.” The idea is to get the flavour of art forms across the world, and then — like magpies — pick up attractive bits and pieces to decorate their own productions.
“In Bharatanatyam you have a vocabulary – everything is set down. The position of the head, the eyes... But we have no rules. Bharatanatyam is a lot more complicated. This is simple. But this also involves inventing, with a lot of humour.”
They’re also hoping that India will throw up a lead actor for their new production, which will tour the world. However, they’re still not sure what it will be. Though, as Marcia says, they’re sure “There will be a hero. It will be magnifique. Extraordinary characters, magical animals…”
Discussing the need to be open to inspiration, she adds, “Things happen and you change your route… The idea is to do something… something we can put in an airplane. When we come to India we will choose an Indian actor, then we take it to Brazil with a Brazilian.” And so on. “If you take someone from a specific country he will add his way of telling it… it gives,” she pauses. “A little bit more spice,” interjects Denis with a grin.
SHONALI MUTHALALY