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Movement in all directions, touching all dimensions, stimulating all our senses.
Becoming animal, human, plant; thinking mathematically, physically, anatomically, instinctively. Researching new pathways of weight, rediscovering playfulness, redefining the relation between risk and knowledge.
In a 3D geometrical shape made of bamboo, we concentrate on shifting the body weight between different points of contact with the flexible canes. We tune into skin, fascia, muscles, bones; starting slowly and consciously, pressuring, stretching. We train simple body intelligence, gradually increasing speed, going into more and more complex sequences, repeating, varying, searching for ways of teaching our bodies how t o fluidly shift between shapes. Jumps, slides, turns, threading and weaving our bodies through the structure. Going into research, finding individual expressions, opening a collective playground.
Integral Bamboo (or Bambu, in Portuguese) was created in Brasilia in 2000 by Marcelo Rio Branco. It is practiced in different hubs throughout Brazil in various forms and has also been used as a basis for performances and installations. The Integral Bamboo movement sees itself as more than just physical activity, expanding into the fields of arts, education and sustainability. It trains force, coordination, motricity, body conscience and self-care with the aim of contributing to a better quality of life in a sustainable way.
Will Lopes
Actor, performer, producer, trainer and builder of bamboo objects. Born in Brasilia (Brazil), currently living in São Paulo where he is focusing on research into the fragmentation of the body throughout human history and in contemporary society. Leading trainings on bamboo objects since 2006, he founded the São Paulo hub of the Integral Bamboo movement in 2014, since then coordinating activites and offering trainings and construction workshops, also for other institutions in Brazil. Other experiences and movement influences include Butoh, Martial Arts, Capoeira and Vertical Dance.
He has been involved in a series of performances using bamboo structures, featuring "Uirapuru Bambu" (artistic director and performer, 2008), "Ultrapassa" (artistic director and performer, 2009 & 2010), "Desdobrar" (technical consultant, 2011), "Teia - paralaxes do imaginário" (technical and artistic coordinator of the national tour 2012 & 2013).
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