Around O Samba do Crioulo Doido, by Luiz de Abreu

O Samba do Crioulo Doido: Regla y Compás, by Calixto Neto

With a strong and radical political message, O Samba do Crioulo Doido has been an iconic dance piece since its premiere in 2004. It was created at the beginning of a process of political change in Brazil, when a man from a working class background became president: Lula da Silva.

The piece addresses the racial issue in the country, the history of violence and exploitation of black men and women throughout the colonial centuries and its consequences today. With his naked figure and an acid sense of humour, Luiz employs a series of clichés that are projected on his body to invert the audience’s gaze and hold a mirror up to it, using the Brazilian flag and samba to drive his narrative.

Over the years, the issues raised by O Samba and its radical statement gained more and more space in the public debate, thanks to affirmative action policies that gave black people access to university and the country’s emergence on the international scene as more than just a tropical landscape for the rich.

The Brazilian expression “samba do crioulo doido” is used to convey the idea that something is an utter shambles. Luiz de Abreu didn’t choose his title casually, but in an attempt to reinforce the power of the cliché and provoke his audience with the audacity of using a clearly racist expression in such way. The piece is like an endless circle of exposure and acknowledgement of the body and the way we see this body. Its dynamic gives further weight to the significant issues that Luiz dares to raise by exhibiting his naked black figure.

Following Bolsonaro’s arrival in Brazil, these issues became even more relevant and radical with the revival of O Samba, which in 2020 was produced at the Centre National de la Danse in France and also performed at Festival Panorama in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Aware of the importance of this rare encounter, dancer Calixto Neto decided to make O samba do Crioulo Doido the subject of a documentary, in which he also brings to light other issues having to do with the problems of legacy, the processes of learning and the creation of a very specific way of teaching dance and dealing with archive material.

Duration of the screening: 15 min.

Conversation between Luiz de Abreu and Carolina Campos after the screening

The screening of the film will be followed by a conversation between choreographer Luiz de Abreu, artist and researcher Carolina Campos and the audience. The discussion will revolve around the thoughts and reflections that both the dance piece and the documentary bring to the table: the projection of violence, joy and bitter irony embodied by Luiz de Abreu in the original version of O Samba; the language found for the transfer of these gestures to Calixto Neto’s body sixteen years later; the way in which this fundamental piece in the history of Brazilian dance was updated; and the piece’s radical nature and relevance in a world increasingly taken over by contemporary fascisms. Luiz de Abreu will join the conversation on Zoom.

Duration of the debate: 1 hour.

Written and directed by: Calixto Neto. Camera: Calixto Neto and Anderson Feliciano. Editing: Calixto Neto and Étienne Aussel. Subtitles: Calixto Neto and Virginie Aubry.

With the support of the Centre National de la Danse and Festival Panorama.

Thanks to Luiz de Abreu, Jackeline Elesbão, Anderson Feliciano, Pedro Ivo Santos, Fabricia Martins, Carolina Campos and Clément Vergé.

Calixto Neto. Recife (Brazil) has lived in France since 2013. He studied drama at the Federal University of Pernambuco and dance at the Experimental Dance Group of Recife, before completing an Exerce Master’s Degree in choreographic studies at the CCN in Montpellier. During his time as a student, he created the solo Petites explosions as well as the duet Pipoca, with Bruno Freire. oh!rage, his second solo, focuses on minority bodies and identities and includes “peripheral” dances that are on the fringes of institutional circuits. A member of the Lia Rodrigues dance company from 2007 to 2013, Calixto Neto has also performed in pieces created by Anne Collod, Mette Ingvartsen, Éve Magot and Luiz de Abreu. In 2020, he directed two films: Samba do Crioulo Doido: Ruler and Compass and Pro Future Quilombo. In May 2021, he created Outrar at the behest of Lia Rodrigues for the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. In September 2021 he took part in a Lia Rodrigues celebration at the Festival d’Automne in Paris with the piece Feijoada. His new creation, IL FAUX, will premiere in May 2023 at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts.

Luiz de Abreu. Born in Minas Gerais (Brazil), Luiz Augusto Barbosa discovered dance in the 1960s through the rituals of the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda religion. He graduated from the Angel Vianna School of Contemporary Dance in Rio de Janeiro, and holds a master’s degree from the Federal University of Uberlândia in Minas Gerais. Focusing mainly on the exploration of stereotypes related to the body, his work has been performed in France, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, Cuba, Spain and Brazil, where he lives and works. His piece O Samba do Crioulo Doido is part of the Centre Pompidou’s video-dance collection. Luiz is currently pursuing a PhD at the Federal University of Bahia, as well as continuing to collaborate with various artists.

Carolina Campos. Involved in different circuits of creation and research, she develops her practices in the fields of performance, writing and pedagogy. She is interested in methodological approaches that reflect collectivities and collaboration in artistic creation. The relationship between image and presence is transversal in her work, her pieces generally developing between the languages of film, performance and photography. She is currently investigating artistic accompaniment as a state of attention that creates fertile ground for imagining worlds in relation and situated critical thinking. She is one of the closest collaborators in the development of Composición en tiempo real [Real Time Composition] since 2012. This research, undertaken through practice and the body together with the Portuguese choreographer João Fiadeiro, relates to philosophy, metaphysical speculation and neuroscience and has been developed over the last few years with the creation of pieces and workshops in different countries in Europe and South America. In Brazil, Campos worked with the Lia Rodrigues dance company between 2008 and 2011. She was artist in residence at La Caldera (2019), La Escocesa (2020 - 2022) and El Graner (2022).