What if this was the beginning of dance? Being born, coming out of our mother's stomach, growing up and experiencing the world.

Such is the dance-filled and visual adventure presented in 'Tête à Têtes'. The entertaining story of a strange character with a large head, from his birth to his encounter with another character: is it his double, or someone else who looks like him? This large, round, faceless head lends the characters a strange yet entertaining appearance, like puppets or giant dolls.  

This large spherical bubble on the dancers’ heads forces them to finds means of expressing emotions and feelings not through their eyes and faces, but through their bodies, which results in a stylised movement resembling a cartoon. 

In addition, the characters are plunged into an environment of animated images, projected onto a white set, from the floor to the screen at the back of the stage, which gives the impression of a vast white page on which anything can be created or invented. 

The images of animations transform, punctuate and articulate the different scenes of which the piece is composed, in constant interaction with the characters. These scenes symbolise the different stages in the characters' lives and their evolution in a visual and metaphorical way.

The result is an aesthetic resembling a cartoon – aesthetics and rules that are familiar to children – therefore allowing direct access to the themes presented in the show (the discovery of the self, of the body, of space, of emotions, of the other, etc.) in a fun, creative way.

Credits

Conception, chorégraphie et danse : Maria Clara Villa Lobos 
Durée : 45 mins 
Danse et collaboration : Barthélémy Manias-Valmont 
Création et régie lumières : Hajer Iblisdir
Création sonore : Gaëtan Bulourde Musiques additionnelles: Pascal Ayerbe, Raymond Scott, MUM 
Régie vidéo : Pierre Delcourt 
Dessins et animation : Jérémy Depuydt
Accessoires et costumes : Aurélie Deloche, Anne Ruellan 
Production : XL Production/ Villa Lobos asbl avec l’aide du Ministère de la Fédération WallonieBruxelles, Service de la Danse. 
Coproduction : Théâtre de Liège 

Réalisation vidéo : Fabien Plasson
Production : Biennale de la Danse - 2014

Maria Clara Villa-Lobos was born in Brasilia, Brazil in 1972. Her father being a diplomat, she had a very “international lifestyle”, living in different countries and continents from the age of three. She speaks therefore several languages, including Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, Dutch, German and Swedish.

She  is a multi-faceted dancer, performer and  choreographer, who is skilled in technical, improvisational and theatrical types of work, with more than twelve years of experience in the performing arts scene. As a dancer and collaborator she has worked with different choreographers such as Rui Horta (SOAP dance theatre), David Hernandez, Willi Dorner (Mazy), Christine De Smedt and Les Ballets C. de la B. (9x9), Sasha Waltz (Dialogue), Lilia Mestre, Thomas Lehmen (Monosubjects) and Tino Sehgal among others.

She has been based in Brussels since 1995 and set up  her own structure, “ XL Production”, in 2002. She has since then been mainly active as a choreographer and has created and directed about 15 pieces/ performances of different scales, both solos and group works, amongst which is the trilogy “M”,”XL” and and ”XXL”, as well as several choreographies for the ”Bal Moderne” project.

What characterizes her work is a humorous, critical and ironic approach to social topics such as consumer society and mass media, highly influenced by pop art and pop culture in general, more recently also with a connection to visual arts.

Using a hybrid language that mixes dance, physicality, objects, sometimes texts or songs, her work has been shown in important venues across Europe (Festival d’Avignon/ Hivernales, Théâtre de la Bastille, Dansens Hus Stockholm, The Place/ London, Impuls Tanz Festival to name a few…), but also in Brazil, Canada, USA and South Korea.

She regularly teaches yoga and dance to children and adults.

Source: Maria Clara Villa-Lobos website

More information

mc-villalobos.com