Posts tagged ‘festival’
Obama does Carnival
A worker cleans Barack Obama masks in the Mascaras Condal factory in Sao Goncalo, Rio de Janeiro. The new face of the White House is the hottest for this year’s Carnival in Brazil. Looks like we’ll be partying with thousands of masked, half-naked Obamas at the Carnival parades next month… because, yes we can.
(AP)
Electrofringe will eat itself
TRANS urban arts factory - bring the world to Belfast and Belfast to the world
Osadia hair art street theatre
The Osadia theatre company, formed in Barcelona in 1996, created the most awesome spectacle at the 2004 Womadelaide festival in Australia.
Their elaborate Geisha and Versailles inspired costuming together with matching attitude made the complete experience high drama - from the theatre of choosing their subjects, the efficient transformation of their hair and face through to the presentation of their completed pygmalion to the waiting crowd (all eager to be chosen next).
And watching these lucky chosen few over the remainder of the weekend, their teflon make-up and hair dye set immaculately, it was clear that they too had acquired some sublime Osadia attitude particularly whilst being adored and treated as walking artworks by other punters. See some of them in my slideshow.
SCORE
French company Au Cul du Loup create stunning physical and musical theatre that defies description in Score. As soon as they step on stage, the six performers take the audience on a brilliantly humorous and enchanting journey through the world of competitive sports – from whistling skiers to buzzing tennis players, sticky-taped wrestlers to arrogant jockeys. Just as at the Olympic Games, expect a lot of drama!
ENTITY
Entity, Wayne McGregor and Random Dance, provided a hot rush to counter the city’s chill on the opening week of the Belfast Festival. Together with the music of Joby Talbot, of the Divine Comedy fame, we left feeling like we’d had a hard night dancing ourselves, without the exhaustion, sweat and connections made with new folk on the dance floor.
In fact the shrouded string quartet and electronic soundscape set a haunting tone for the otherworldly visuals which really did separate audience from performer. The dancers’ extreme moves evoked voyeuristic feelings in me, their hot contortionist bodies pulling moves reminiscent of spasticity. It is the taboos around watching people who move outside of the norm that made it all the more compelling.
The awesome strength and endurance of the dancers allowed them to dance on the knuckles of their feet - that’s a big ouch that I’ve experienced thanks to yoga teacher Idit’s (from Samadhi yoga in Newtown) toe torture pose which she justifies as a tool for pain management.