Marco da Silva Ferreira

Marco da Silva Ferreira: CARCAÇA

How does community develop, how does a collective memory emerge from individual memories? The Portuguese Marco da Silva Ferreira explores this with his company Pensamento Avulso, whose cheerful diversity does not care about skin color, gender or intact bodies. In sneakers, the dancers bounce in small, rapid steps like in clubbing or street dance. The traditions inherent in the individual bodies - the proud Portuguese folklore, the earthiness of African dances, the American moonwalk of the 80s - are constantly intermingled with this cool, rapid movement from the floor. What remains of those times, how do solitaires become a synchronized group? "CARCAÇA" examines whether dance can absorb and integrate the new movements that may have emerged on the street, or whether it has to break with an authoritative past to do so. Should we preserve our heritage or separate ourselves from it? Does democracy become hollow if an authority determines identity and it does not emerge from the people? The ensemble sings a workers' song at the top of their voices, "Alle Mauern fallen" (All Walls Fall) appears in neon letters on the wall and the shirts mutate into posters, protective shields and open mouths. The people even question the floor they are dancing on. "CARCAÇA" attempts to connect past and present in dance - the word means "skeleton" or "wreck", but also refers to the rods on which something new can perhaps be hung. Marco da Silva Ferreira was discovered by Hofesh Shechter; he challenges the dancers with his highly intense, movement-rich style and the audience with his socio-critical themes.

The piece has catapulted Ferreira, who himself comes from street dance, into the international premier league of the contemporary dance scene. Eight virtuoso dancers amalgamate the forces of the past into an unreal future.
Berlin newspaper

Breathtaking choreography in the truest sense of the word.
Kronen Zeitung

It is in dance, in the orchestration of dynamic bodies of different genders, generations and origins, that Marco da Silva Ferreira is at his strongest.
The Standard

The Portuguese director leaves no doubt that he is not serving up a cheap folklore show here, but knows exactly what he is doing: "The dances in 'Carcaça' reflect the reality of the communities: the people, their desires, their fears."
The Standard