Metropolis

A solo by Volmir Cordeiro, set to the drumming of Philppe Foch.

A solo that dreams of being a punk opera, a frenzied dance against capitalist panic with arms both unbroken and broken, ready for approved embraces.

Hello? Metropolis is a carnival, an allegory. It is painted, masked, portable, monitored, tracked,
filmed and automated. It is the crossroads where expressions of freedom meet the counterforces of
police control. It dances across deftly traced lines, fiercely defended as the only imaginable,
functional and appropriate routes. Metropolis shows us its vulnerable side, its deep desire to escape
conformity and control. It is a cluster of urban and rural objects and entities. It is an offering: of
atmospheres, flows, energies, merchandise, architecture and human formations. An epidemic
threatens Metropolis. Power cuts interrupt remote work. Metropolis contains all things: even the
ideology of cleanliness, a yearning for sterile spaces, free from strangeness. What dance can we
dance to stop Metropolis from crushing our sense of freedom? Metropolis won’t stop, it says ‘hello’.
The line is bad. It rises up all powerful yet lives in tatters. We fight it with our homemade weapons.
Metropolis sorts ceaselessly, sliding us into the slots it deems permissible. We step into danger, but
danger is nothing new. Perhaps Metropolis is no more than a costume: one that dancers wear to lay
claim to greater space for their unending and unpredictable movement. This Dancopolis you are
watching is not in the metropolis, it is the metropolis, rising up to defend itself. It is the fight and it is
the ring. Between rules and sidewalks, this dance steps out of line. Make your choice between an
over-bearing, murderous father, a sequence of combative dance steps and a smiling tik-tok heroine.
Good night.

SHOWS

VITRY-SUR-SEINE, France. 29.06.2024. Six heures du soir en été. CDCN - La Briqueterie.
BARCELONNE, Spain. 22 and 23.04.2023. Mercat de les flors - Casa de la danza
FREIBOURG, Germany. 18.03.2023. Theater Freiburg
POITIERS, France. 08.03.2022. Festival À Corps.
VAL D'OISE, France. 24.09.2022 Fondation Royaumont.
TOULOUSE, France. 28.01.22 • La place de la danse CDCN, Toulouse
MONTPELLIER, France. 12-14.12.21 • La Vignette, Université Paul Valery / ICI-CCN de Montpellier
VITRY SUR-SEINE, France. 23 & 24.11.21 - Briqueterie CDCN, Vitry, Festival Excentriques.
CERGY, France. 11-14.11.21 - Points Communs, scène nationale du Val-d'oise, Cergy-Pontoise, Festival d'Automne -  Portrait Lia Rodrigues