Grupo Cena 11 Cia. de Dança (Florianapolis/Brazil)

Choreography: Alejandro Ahmed, 9 dancers

Their productions, which are reminiscent of spectacles, call for precise knowledge of the body: they are visually hypnotic, acrobatic, explore all the media, are rhythmic, philosophical and tough. Cena 11 investigates the wanderings of the mind and the limits of the body, asking - at the very same moment - how the wandering mind relates to reality and how people overcome their bodily limits.

Their hybrid dance employs a variety of media and themes: computers, electronic music, video clips, comics, 1990s’ culture, androgyny, fashion, polemics, the contrast between new and old. It is this concept of fusing dance, science and technology that makes Cena 11’s style so remarkable, and is the vital basis on which their productions evolve. Since the group was founded at the end of the 1980s, they have put on seven pieces. Although each one stands on its own, it also marks a stage in a continually developing oeuvre. Cena 11, which was given its European première at IN TRANSIT 06, is part of a creation that began as early as 2002 with the Projekt SKR. The most recent stage was their production Skinnerbox, premièred in 2005, which thematises the conditioning experiments undertaken by American behavioural scientist Burrhus Frederic Skinner. In Cena 11, the interaction between new technology and the body is more than just a medium in the performance, since the preliminary work focused on “body-related protocols”. In the process of documenting their bodily movements while they appraise their approach, they create a structure around which the piece is organised. The dancers’ motions are recorded using cameras and digital sensors, and integrated into the performance in the form of projections. The result is a transition from nature to technology and culture, a transition that visually conveys the relationship to a theme central to the group: that between reality and fiction.

An event within the framework of Focus Brasil IN TRANSIT 06 / Copa da Cultura – Brasil + Deutschland 2006