Carnival

Compagnie Kaefig
“Correira”, “Agwa”
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 28, 2014
 
by George Jackson
copyright 2014 by George Jackson

Compagnie Kafig in Agwa, photo by Michel Cavalca.

The curtain calls at the very end of this short show were fun! Into the brighter, less “artistic” lighting tumbled a bunch of dancers looking like Rio street boys smiling for carnival’s first night. Gone was the  defensive frowning. Absent was the “martial arts” aggressiveness of their tricks. Bare chested, sweating, these eleven lads seemed to be enjoying pulling off their favorite stunts. Prompted by the audience’s applause, they lapped up approval as if it were honey. If only Mourad Merzouki’s two works had been blessed with such spontaneity.

Merzouki raises lots of questions. Although his dance company is funded in France and based in the Paris suburb of Cretail, on the river Marne, he has given the troupe an unFrench name - “Kaefig”. That means “Cage” in German, yet Merzouki interprets the word in a contrary way. He goes on to point out that Arabic has a similar word (“Kafas”). Is the choreographer invoking or rejecting his nationality and his ancestry? More tangible is Merzouki’s use of street ways (hip hop moves), fight deportment (wary stances, defensive responses), circus showoff  (juggling and balancing). The dancers he deploys aren’t French, German or Arabic but seem to hail from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. What has come along with them is the punchy muscularity of the samba.

 

Compagnie Kafig in Agwa, photo by Michel Cavalca.

The program’s first piece, “Correria” (which means “run, “incursion” in Portuguese) shows that Merzouki is adept at giving his cast the sidewalk, fight mat and circus ring moves he knows. He can also stop motion on a dime, distribute it from a few bodies to many, and slow or hasten its pounding pace. I didn’t discern a particular order in his sequence of movement themes. The program’s other piece, “Agwa”, is a set of variations on water and its plastic containers. This dance is a more clever concoction. Merzouki allows us to contemplate the contrast between an unchanging natural substance and what is meant to manipulate it – the vessels that are either useful containers or bothersome trash. What doesn’t happen in either “Correira” or “Agwa” is movement growing, developing, gaining nuance. Compare even the most bravura of street stunts, the whirling done while pivoting on the head, to one of ballet’s most circusy steps – fouettes. These whip turns have been infused with temperament. Ballet dancers today can express personality and suggest meanings in the varied ways they fouette. Merzouki’s  hip hop, even with its martial and circus additives, remains repetitive and isn’t as nuanced a language.