As part of the residence program Vila Sul of the Goethe-Institute Salvador de Bahia and within the framework of the international festival VIVADANÇA, Ben J. Riepe worked with eight local dancers to further develop his current research on the supercharging of the body, its materiality, staging and social integration. In this context, Ben J. Riepe explored the physical formations of the world-famous carnival in Salvador de Bahia as a collective ritual of political and physical ecstasy, as well as the traditional candomblé voodoo rites. In these centuries-old traditions, the social, aesthetic, erotic, commercialized, clichéd body, as well as the political body charged by racism and post-colonialism is presented. All these charging of bodies and cultural inscriptions are transferred into the stage-work Corpo Carga Calma Alma (engl. Body Charge Calm Soul) in front of the beholder’s eye.

Choreography: Ben J. Riepe
With: Eron Pimenta, Flávia Rodrigues, João Kleber (JK), Laís Machado, Sauane Costa, Sthefferson Lima, Thiago Cohen, Tiago Ribeiro
Assistant director: Daniel Ernesto Müller Torres
Photos: Bruno Baretto