Contemporary dance performances are rarely known for their humour, wit, and uplifting character; a myth dispelled in Mourad Merzouki’s Agwa/ Correira by Compagnie Käfig. Founded in 1996, with 16 dance creations and over 2000 performances worldwide, Käfig is hip-hop contemporary dance fusion at its best. Explosive and exuberant, visceral and inventive, Agwa/Correira, (running water) is chalked full of jaw-dropping athleticism and poetic inventiveness.
In 2006, Merzouki invited 11 young male dancers from Rio de Janeiro to the Lyon Dance Biennial in France, and the results were two phenomenal creations, first Agwa, and later Correira. A combination of complex hip hop, capoeira, samba, and contemporary styles to a soundtrack of bossa nova, classical, drumming, and electronic music Agwa/ Correira features a unique cast of dynamic performers.
All Images via Michael Cavalca for AGWAThe show opens in darkness with three figures lying on their backs in white running shoes peddling the air like a bicycle signing softly in Portuguese. So begins Correira, simple yet exquisite rumination on the physical act of running. Set to the overwhelming sound of drums, dancers run in track pants and runners, pound the stage with their hands and feet, building rhythms, and creating percussion with every surface of their bodies in a white square of light in this dance about the force and energy of running.
At times the dancers jump into each others arms and hang suspended as their legs spin, running in slow motion, grown men, clutched by the chest, hanging upside down.
In Correira, Merzouki explores the simple magic of running from every possible angle in this playful and thoughtful dance, that is at once boisterous, entrancing, and inventive.
The energy of running becomes trapped in their bodies, lodged in their shoulders, necks, hips along with each body part in isolation in Correira, a dance of simplicity and endurance. Each idea quickly transforms into the next in this exciting whirlwind, which moves at break-neck speed to seductive beats, at once, joyful and effortless.
At one point the dancers pull up their trousers to reveal a series of outlandishly coloured socks, as Merzouki combine humour and seriousness in the same moment. The dancers’ physical embodiment of velocity and joy is so complete the audience can’t help but smile.
Similar to Correira, Agwa explores one idea; water, from a variety of perspectives.
Bodies burst with movement, pulsing, dancers crawl across the dimly lit stage like shrimp trawlers arranging scattered plastic cups into perfect rows. In a series of mind-boggling stunts, the dancers back flip backwards and summersault through corridors of empty plastic cups without knocking over a single one.
The plastic cups become a part of the unique anatomy of the stage.
Like in Correira, Merzouki’s sense of humour is palpable. Out of nowhere, dancers appear onstage a series of identical ill-fitting, tent-shaped, clear plastic ponchos and continue to dance. Agwa is both theatrical and playful. A bare stage covered with a mass amount of little plastic cups provides unlimited opportunities for wit and inventiveness in this ultra-physical, engaging and surprising performance.
The impact of 11 impeccably virtuosic, fully embodied, male dancers on stage is a powerful force.
The plastic cups, a handful actually filled with water, serve as a metaphor for Merzouki, as he explores our consumer relationship with our most precious natural resource that sustains life.
Agwa/ Correira is hip hop and contemporary dance fusion at its most dynamic and poetic, a testament to everything that dance performance can be, powerful, thought provoking and deeply uplifting.
AGWA/ Correira
Compagnie Käfig
May 2-5, 8pm
Fleck Dance Theatre
Harbourfront Centre
207 Queens Quay West
For tickets call: 416 973-4000
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