photo by bill cameron
Contempo Physical Dance Presents Vulcão 2/16–17
St. Paul dance company Contempo Physical Dance has a reputation for combining the limb-flinging power of Afro-Brazilian martial arts, the energetic offshoots of the African diaspora, and the blast-open-the-doors ethos of the contemporary world—which all erupt in Vulcão, at the Cowles Center this month after it premiered in 2015 at Macalester College. “Vulcão” means “volcano” in Brazilian Portuguese, but it’s also slang for those who inspire either heated desire or deep repugnance. The dancers’ bodies quiver like tectonic plates and slowly coil like lava flow. Their meaningful glances and regimented interactions onstage convey the bubbling undercurrents of a shifting social order—bringing to mind Igor Stravinsky’s infamous The Rite of Spring.
Digital Extra: Dance Volcanic
Watch St. Paul’s Contempo Physical Dance company perform Vulcão, bursting with frenetic, muscular, contemporary energy.
VULCAO by Contempo Physical Dance from Marciano Silva Dos Santos on Vimeo.
