Terra
Cube, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
★★★☆☆
In her slow-burning dance Terra, the choreographer Alessandra Azeviche is first seen as a picture of perfect balance. Standing on an industrial patch of metal partially reclaimed by nature, she asks us to join in a minute’s pause, as if guiding us through a meditation.
Things soon lose control, as Azeviche’s agitated movement, choreographed with Simone O’Toole, becomes a mash-up of worship poses and painful winces, against a mangling score of drum shimmers and Arabic woodwinds. While trying to remain appreciative of the world around her, she seems to be losing her mind.
During this turmoil we hear extracts from activists about the planet being corroded by industry and how the rediscovery of indigenous culture may provide a remedy. Azeviche’s ailing woman seeks out her roots, trying to get back to a certain way of moving, as an Afro-Brazilian native. The drum crashes of the percussionist André Antunes beat in rhythm to her story, as she swerves into sidesteps and spins.
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When has Dublin ever seen a perspective like this? (Azeviche was in Dublin Fringe Festival’s first iteration of its Weft studio for early-career artists from the global majority – an initiative diversifying the industry.) Along the way there isn’t always a steady control of the material. For instance, it’s difficult to judge a sequence wherein we hear from an omnipresent doctor, as Azeviche wears stalks of grass like gigantic ears.
An invigorating finale, however, sees her finally achieve fluidity, strutting and slinking to Afrobeats pomp, with capoeira-cartwheel flourishes. Beyond the reach of her torments, she is free.
Continues at Project Arts Centre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Wednesday, September 11th
