Repertório N.2 is the second installment of a choreographic trilogy by Brazilian artists Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira, exploring dance as a form of self-defense. This work employs unconventional and informal techniques, drawing from an alternative lineage of self-defense practices. Through their choreography, Pontes and Ferreira critically examine the world by combining imagination and intuition, seeking to break free from both implicit and explicit constraints and challenge the colonial, racial, and cisheteropatriarchal frameworks embedded in Western ideology.
Their inquiry begins with the question, "How can dance be used as a form of self-defense?" Pontes and Ferreira experiment with symbolic departures from state-perpetuated violence and institutional repression. Their choreography utilizes mimesis and rhythmic patterns to expand perceptions of time and space, influenced by martial arts, capoeira, and a critical interpretation of dance history. This approach culminates in movement vocabularies deeply rooted in Black aesthetics.
CREDITS
Concept and performance
Davi Pontes
Wallace Ferreira
Work commissioned by
Frestas - Trienal de Artes 2020/21 - O rio é uma serpente, curated by Beatriz Lemos, Diane Lima and Thiago de Paula Souza
Management and Distribution
Something Great
Premiere
Les Urbaines, Switzerland, 2021
BIOGRAPHIES
Davi Pontes is an artist, choreographer, and researcher. Graduated in arts from the Universidade Federal Fluminense and holds a Master’s degree in arts from the same institution. He studied at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo ESMAE (Porto, Portugal). Since 2016, he has presented his work in art galleries and national and international festivals, mainly at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), My Wild Flag (Stockholm), Pivô (São Paulo), Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), Rua das Gaivotas 6 (Porto), Bienal Sesc de Dança, MITsp – Mostra Internacional de Teatro de São Paulo, Les Urbaines festival (Switzerland), Galeria Vermelho (São Paulo), Valongo International Image Festival (São Paulo), Itaú Cultural Rumos Program 2021, Panorama Festival (Rio de Janeiro), 5th Itaú Cultural Dance Exhibition (São Paulo), Artfizz – HOA Gallery (USA), and residencies at ImPulsTanz 2022 [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series (Austria), La Becque (Switzerland), Pivô Art Research Program, MAM Rio Arts Research Residency Program, and Escola Livre de Artes – ELÃ among others. Awarded artist at ImPulsTanz – Young Choreographers’ Award, 2022 (Austria).
Wallace Ferreira is a choreographer, performer and visual artist. She graduated from the Escola Livre de Artes da Maré (ELÃ) and the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage. She is the winner of the ImPulsTanz – Young Choreographers’ Award 2022 and the FOCO ARTRIO Award 2024. Through interdisciplinary practices, her creations provoke ruptures between dance, performance, visual arts, and the study of images choreographed by dissident bodies, attempting to archive actions that elaborate resistance and summon ways of remaining in the world. Moved by the challenges of tensing the present, since 2018 she has presented her works in art galleries, national and international festivals. In collaboration with artist Davi Pontes, she develops the choreographic practice trilogy Repertório, which explores dance as a form of self-defence training. Within the Ballroom/Vogue culture, she holds the title of Legendary Mother of the Kiki House of Mamba Negra. She is also the director of the pieces ATRAQUE and Vogue Funk, creating spaces through practices that activate the body as a historical agent, repositioning naturalised codes in social spheres and articulating strategies to subvert established languages.