A BRAZILIAN MENAGERIE OF CHARACTERS DANCES AT BAM IN ENCANTADO
REVIEW:
Encantado means delight. Rio de Janeiro’s Favela de la Maré, Lia Rodrigues, presented her fabulous dance company in this nearly excellent new work at BAM this week. The performance begins with a stage awash in vividly colored blankets, carefully rolled out by several dancers. Slowly, with great care, they unroll the many cloths that will become their symbiotic props informing their emerging alter egos.
As one performer after the other slithers through the sea of layers winding and unwinding themselves, they “become.” The most sensational and marvelous part is their first transformation when they become animals, but then they become a whole host of other characters, some recognizable and some not. They adjust their blankets for each new character creating sarongs, turbans, moving mountains, and weird creatures. Yet, by the last third of the show, tedium prevails, and the intent of the story at hand is lost to boredom. Ultimately Encantado became more about blankets and less about the story it aspired to tell.
The company dances to the soundtrack of songs by Brazil’s Mbyá Guaraní people that were recorded during a demonstration for land recognition. It is full of life. Vital in its enchanting sound supporting the performance. Yet, it became tiresome after a while, making the loop a hypnotic and monotonous wind-up bird on repeat. As for the political nature of the music, it reflects no image to the audience to distinguish that important fact mentioned in the description. It was a show with marvelous talent from every angle but hadn’t “become” what could have made it great.
