Life is not useful (or it is what it is) - Creation November 2023
A sensitive and powerful dance through the words of Ailton Krenak to imagine another way of inhabiting the world and to be dazzled by being alive.
Life is not useful (or it is what it is) is a danced lecture, springing from the encounter between choreographer Bruno Freire and the words of Ailton Krenak, one of the most important political voices in contemporary Brazil. In his publication “Life is not useful”, he asserts that life is an experience of wonder that cannot be reduced to its utilitarian dimension. Haunted by the power of these words, Bruno Freire dances to Krenak’s text as if it were a musical score, inviting us – through a unique listening experience – to feel it in our flesh.
A philosopher and Indigenous activist, Ailton Krenak offers a critique of contemporary urban society. Convinced that it is more urgent to listen to those who care for the forest rather than those who destroy it, Bruno Freire takes us inside his questioning. How can we face the climate catastrophe without falling into anxiety and melancholy? Letting himself be carried by the sound and meaning of the words, he brings Krenak’s thoughts to life, initiating a dance to delay the end of the world.
Life is not useful (or it is what it is) is the second part of a diptych devoted by the artist to his research on wonder. Alone in the middle of a stripped-down stage, he gives body and voice to a moving reflection on life. By confronting us with the ravages caused by Western society, he questions our habits as “eaters of the planet”. What if it were the non-usefulness of life that made it so precious? What if the sole purpose of our time on Earth was simply to be alive?
concept, choreography and performance Bruno Freire based on texts by Ailton Krenak
sound design Tomas Monteiro
assistant Manon Santkin and Robson Ledesma
lighting design Laura Salerno
lighting management : Nixon Fernandes
Provocations Cristian Duarte
Dramaturgical perspectives : Ana Teixeira and Anna Czapski
Text translation support Roz Whytes (English), Anna Czapski (French)
Life is not useful (or it is what it is) and Matamatá form a diptych.
This diptych is the production of two choreographic works that complement and complexify each other, like two photographic images placed side by side. Diptych is a project composed of a choreographic piece for three performers and a solo danced lecture. It is the unfolding of Bruno’s endless research toward and around wonder.
Faced with the zeitgeist of our time, the climate catastrophe, the imminent death of the largest tropical forest on the planet, I question myself as a choreographic artist: Will we be able to reforest/replant, to become forest with our bodies and our cities, how will we seek joy and pleasure and not fall into melancholic and eco-climate anxiety? How can we create a dance to “delay the end of a world”?
We start from bodily fabulations to make the spectators’ thoughts dance.
Production Stephanie Bouteille, Pierre-Laurent Boudet, Lucille Belland for Entropie Production
Executive production La Balsamine
Coproduction La Balsamine, Charleroi Danse - centre chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles, La Cigalière, La Coop asbl, Shelter Prod,
With the support of Dance Service of the Fédération Wallonie - Bruxelles, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, European Union - Culture Moves Europe, Wallonie Bruxelles Théâtre-Danse, taxshelter.be, ING, Belgian Federal Government Tax Shelter
Residencies Festival International BAM (Siby/Bamako - Mali), WorkspaceBrussels, KRAAK Santarcangelo International Festival (It), La Cigalière (Sérignan - Fr), BUDA Kunstencentrum (Kortrijk - Be)
, Théâtre VARIA (Be)
Acknowledgements Ailton Krenak, Tarina Quelho, Thiago Alixandre, Calixto Neto, Breno Caetano, Zé Fernando, Louise Cardon & Cao Guimarães
