BOWING BACK (Performance)
BOWING BACK is a performance of dance, music and spoken word. In this second edition, we migrate from São Teotónio to Odemira. We come to another place with a new performance in a serious attempt to communicate through language. Dozens of migrants from India, Punjab, Nepal, Bangladesh and China form alliances with artists in movement, word and music to create a piece that will transform Odemira for three nights. BOWING BACK is an itinerant creation where the streets are filled with voices, words, dances, rhythms, reinvented and yet-to-be-invented. The Portuguese language has to be understood as nomadic, welcoming future people and generations across distant geographies. BOWING BACK offers everyone the right to have an accent, the right to the time to translate a scream into Portuguese, a laughter into Hindi, a groan into Bangla, a sigh into Punjabi: languages native to this new Alentejo in which we live.
BOWING BACK performance in the town of Odemira November 10, 12 and 13, 2022
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MEDITATION
We begin on the other side of the Odemira bridge with a joint meditation between music and ritualistic gestures that form a sequence in which all the bodies align themselves and prepare for the performance that follows.
PONTE
Under the bridge that crosses the Mira River, songs are sung with melodies from different latitudes that mix and form the sounds of Odemira. It's where Alentejo's traditional singing melts with Bollywood. In the mouths of all are words resounding in Portuguese, Hindi, Nepali as a way of saying to the public: "This is for you; I live here, on the Earth, not in Heaven."
BOXES
We wait for the public, wooden boxes atop our heads. We carry them as if they were suitcases, empty luggage with everything we have brought from other places and everything yet to be found. All of us go, 70 people among the audience, guiding the people up through the village, making the journey side-by-side.
COMFORT ZONE
The 'Comfort Zone' is set up in a parking lot at the top of the village, where the audience is welcomed and invited to participate in a comfort dance. Following that, a row of about 40 people sitting opposite each other performs the Passport sequence: a conversation between a migrant and an employee of the Foreigners and Borders Service. A joint speech then opens, on chairs, about all the documents a migrant needs to present their expression of interest and eventually get the residence card. Immediately afterwards, while part of the public enters the New SEF, others are left to enjoy the various open-air rooms to the accompaniment of music: simultaneous conversations on carpets, henna paintings, a bar, and a library. This place is, therefore, a play between comfort and discomfort - a warm space that speaks to sensitive and urgent topics.
NEW SEF
Opposite the Comfort Zone is the New SEF building. It's a former Student Centre, now unused that we've transformed into a place with mysterious energy: dance solos, duets and spoken word spread over several rooms and floors while musicians perform with percussion and voice. In one room, a tabla player gives the building its heartbeat. Three men at the entrance throw limes at each other in an energetic game. There is an official inside his office in a bureaucratic dance, the madness of blank papers, the room of tears, a laundry of non-maternal languages, a Bollywood duet, and a floor dedicated to stories and dreams of young people from Nepal, China, and Bangladesh. This New SEF depicts the waiting times, the bureaucracy, the gravity and the interest. It is magnetic and political.
SIKH TEMPLE
Inside the Misericórdia Church, built in the 16th century, a Sikh temple rises for three nights. In place of the altar is a carpet with Punjabi men singing and playing religious music while, in the main wing, other men in front of mirrors slowly remove their turbans and put them back on in a very detailed manner. The audience covers their heads and barefoot enters to observe the ritual.
BAGGAGE
The last stop of the performance happens in another parking lot. In front of the Misericórdia Church begins a sequence of contemporary dance on carpets, a collaboration between dancers and young men from the cast. A series of solos and group dances follow Taranpreet and her dance from Punjab, the Bangra sequence, Arshpreet and Gursanj teaching everyone the Punjabi alphabet (Gurmuki), an Indian trio of young rappers and a Nepali dance guided by Lilia and Usha. This last stop traverses all the cultures present, an apotheosis of energy that celebrates the encounter, the journey we have made throughout all these months.
CREDITS
MADALENA VICTORINO Artistic Direction In co-creation and with the interpretation of INÊS MELO SOUSA Dance MATILDE REAL Word DANIELA CRUZ Dance FRANCISCO THIAGO Dance JOÃO OLIVEIRA Dance MANUEL RUIZ Word SARA PATERNESI Dance RAJENDRA SHIWAKOTI Music and Intercultural Meditation Equipa Nuclear BOWING AASHIKA KANDEL, ABDUL MUTIN, ABDUR ROHIM, ALMA WHITELEGG, ANTÓNIO FRANCO, ARSHPREET KAUR, CHIARA GRILLI, CRISTINA RODRIGUES, DANAE GALLET, DANIEL WANG, DIOGO ALVES, ERWIN POLS, MOHAMMAD FARUK, GURSANJPREET KAUR, HELENA FRANCO, HELENA LOERMANS, JAGJEET SINGH, KAMAL ADHIKARI, KARAN KALIA, KHALILUR RAHMAN, LAXMI KHADKA, LEONOR ALVES, LIAN WHITELEGG, LILIA SUDEBI, MADALENA PULQUÉRIO, MAITRI PATEL, MAKHAN SINGH, MEHEDI SHUVO, MILAN MAGAR, NAIMA NABIN, NAOLI GALLET, NAYON HAWLADER, NUSAIBA TAIMA NUR, PEDRO SIMÕES, PRASHANT KHATRI, ROHIT SINGH SAINI, SAIMA NABIN, SYED RAHMAN, SUKHWINDER SINGH, TARANPREET DHINDSA, TERESA TEÓFILO, USHA PATHAK, YANAI WHITELEGG, YANGDU SHERPA, YOUSEF MIA, YUBIKA MAGAR ENTRE OUTROS Population of the Municipality of Odemira PEDRO SALVADOR Musical Creation and Coordination MARGARIDA MESTRE Choral Creation and Voice CHÃO MAIOR - YAW TEMBE, NORBERTO LOBO, LEONOR ARNAUT, JOÃO ALMEIDA, RICARDO MARTINS Musical Creation INDERJEET SINGH Musical Creation MUHAMMAD SHOAIB Musical Creation MANPREET SINGH Musical Creation HARJOT SINGH, BIKRAMJIT SINGH, RAJVEER SINGH Musical Creation Guest Artists JOAQUIM MADAÍL Lighting design and technical direction CAROLINA RIBEIRO, MUHAMMAD SHOAIB Executive Production SAMUEL MEYLER, MARINA VISMARA Artistic and Logistical Support JASBEER SINGH AND SIKHISM COMMUNITY Cultural representation BAKHTA MAGAR, ADEEP MAGAR, GURPREET SINGH F