ZONA FRANCA

ZONA FRANCA: the title evokes the vision of a world in which everything can be shared, in a completely open way. In this latest piece, which incorporates different popular dances and music in a free manner, Alice Ripoll and her performers enable us to see how a newly-resurrected Brazil can reinvent itself.

ZONA FRANCA was first performed at the end of Jair Bolsonaro’s period of government and the return of Lula as the head of Brazil, in a country scarred by tensions and social and economic inequalities. Starting from the base of what these changes have meant for individuals and society alike, Alice Ripoll uses these life experiences as the basis for choreographic research into modes of action and collective creation. Following on from Suave and Cria, in conjunction with the Suave company, and its encounter between urban dance and contemporary dance, ZONA FRANCA goes one step further in this hybridization process in its association between theatre and song, and blend of popular dances from the north and north-east of Brazil with afro dances and afro house. Onstage the ten performers move, sing, and handle coloured balloons, elements in a contemporary ritual which invites the audience to experience a wide range of emotions, between a vulnerability, deep-seated anger and great joy.

Text : © Yaël Kreplak

Photo: © Renato Mangolin