Body Images

»Body and soul« – Brazilian »soul« and European »techniques« are the two poles of Lina do Carmo's visual body language. BODY IMAGES presents short portraits of women, famous as well as anonymous: a Brazilian washerwoman as well as Isadora Duncan. In short choreographies she presents:

PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN (1985, Paris) - A reflection about female atavism.  Music: Luizao Paiva and Jean Michel Jarre (Zoolook)

CAMILLE CLAUDEL (1985, Paris/1989, Germany) - Life and personality of the great French sculptor Camille Claudel reflected through her artistical expression.  Music: John Surman: Watershed

OCEAN AND TIME (1989, Germany) - A reflection about "time" and "eternity" that was inspired by Jorge Amado's novel "Mar Morto" ("Dead Sea").  Music Heitor Villa-Lobos/Egberto Gismonti: Trem caipira

POMBA GIRA (1989, Germany) - One of the most popular female symbols of Brazilian religious dance rituals is "Pomba Gira", the wife of the devil. Her extreme expression of eroticism and fun in the every day's life is satirized in this solo. Music: Lambada

THE WASHERWOMAN (1989, Germany) - A poetical approach to a typical character from the banks of Brazilian rivers.  Music: Guem & Zaka Percussion

MATERNITE (1984, Paris. Directed by Marcel Marceau) - An elliptic movement full of symbolism characterises the eternal theme of birth, life and death.  Music: Johann Sebastian Bach: Air

ISADORA (Homage to Isadora Duncan) (1986, Brazil) - Using the techniques of mime and expressionistic dance this choreography presents a series of poses of Isadora Duncan that were drawn by the French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle.  Music: Frédéric Chopin: Etudes, opus 10

Concept, choreography and dance: Lina do Carmo • Co-direction: Mark Britton • Lightdesign: Burkhard Jüterbock • Soundtrack: Elmar Griethe • Supported by: Art Foundation of Rio de Janeiro & Theatertransfer Michael Hilleckenbach • Special Thanks: Nievis Arnoso (costumes), James Saunders, Akiko Miyabe, Carlos Afonso

The Press

»Mime that blows up all the limits of cliché...
She connects expressionist dance and mime in an elaborated way. The result are short and impressive theatrical scenes: "Body Images". (...) The Brazilian is Isadora Duncan, Marcel Marceau and Charly Chaplin in one person. Everyone of her seven studies is a small work of art on its own. Lina do Carmo found exactly the right way of expressing herself through her difficult art that is miles away from white painted clown faces and other clichés so often associated with mime.«
(Berliner Morgenpost)

»Message of Movement...
The sinewy, powerful performance of Lina do Carmo impresses enduringly.«
(Frankfurter Rundschau)

»Corporal Symphonies...
Who watches her will understand where this reputation originates: Lina do Carmo - that is pure magnetism, she is a dancer who with a lift of the eyebrows is able to attract the audience's attention. And she goes her own and self-willed way. She stays away from the clichés of mime...her own body which she is able to control perfectly._
_With strength but also with tenderness she orchestrates floating symphonies that evoke associations more often than enable perceptions and therefore leave space for the spectator's phantasy.«
(Nordbayerische Zeitung)

»Eloquent body...
Lina do Carmo, whose name stands for the renaissance of the Brazilian mime after the end of the military dictatorship, developes her themes in an intensively poetical way.
Again and again the woman is reflected in her body images like in "Maternité", directed by Marceau in 1984. There are only very few mimes that can perform in such a convincing way as Lina do Carmo.«
(Fürther Nachrichten)

»Round Dance of Emotions...
The wordless art of the body is hardly ever seen in such intensity. A round dance of sensations, of abysses, of life in all its tenderness and hardness.«
(Nürnberger Nachrichten)

»Human emotions in a fascinating mime play...
With her impressive body language Lina do Carmo, the Brazilian soul of expressionistic body theatre, evokes blizzards of imagination and power but at the same time also of quietness and tenderness, even erotism. A female mime that might become a legend.«
(WR)

»Expressive poses...
A fusion of light, shadows and movemen. In the footsteps of Isadora Duncan.The Brazilian artist does not only dance, but she merges mime and the art of classical body expression. The fusion of these two artistical elements is rare. More rare is the artist's perfectly controlled deliverance. Lina do Carmo has created this very special personal style.«
(Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger)