Since the quarantine started in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in March 2020, I started to find others through a screen, just like most people. On one of those occasions of making a video call, my schedules and that of a friend, with whom I made the appointment, did not match. Like other meetings, which by some force of the universe do not happen, we ended up not meeting, and this friend of mine said "aye, alright, we meet in the movement". A mixture of curiosity, strangeness and doubt in that sentence broke out inside me, and I was thinking about it for a while. Due to the absence of the physical body of the other, challenges and readjustments in how to deal with this unusual situation were already appearing, even so, the phrase “we meet in the movement”, boosted a desire to dedicate more time and attention in creating, moving and think about the body today. This body is in a state of crisis. It is in the urgency and importance of continuity that the proposal to find virtually to dance together separately arises. Not as an immediate and positive response to the production logic of the current system, but as a response to this desire to investigate and reflect on how creation occurs with the body in the current pandemic context.

In May I proposed to Eleonora Artysenk, Mana Lobato and Lara Fuke these meetings that took place in four stages; 1) meet by videocall with one more person and talk freely, 2) raise a question together from the dialogue, 3) hang up the videocall and move at the same time with the question as a starting point and 4 ) record the experience through writing right after moving. The question as the starting point, as a hole of possibilities. During the meetings, numerous questions arose, as well as anxieties, affections, memories, and not only did the question reverberate in the movement, but the remains of the conversation and longing to be together, in a studio, in a performance, in an essay, in a class, in a party, in Street. From these meetings, the video below was made.

It was necessary to activate the imagination and make a pact to dive into invisible spaces at the same time at each meeting, perform the same performance in different spaces, and trust. There is an excerpt from a text by Linn da Quebrada in which she writes: “nothing seems to make much sense and yet everything makes me feel a lot. I'm not a pessimist. much less realistic. I am a fiction writer: I invent truths ”. This sensation of inventing truths turns and moves through me and shakes me in bodily experience, which to some may seem like mythology, mysticism or simply impossible, I believe the oracle and philosopher body manifesting itself.

How to be together separately? How to dance connected by plans other than the virtual? We have been experimenting with new ways of being together now, and I feel that it is possible powerful encounters, in this virtual and so surreal place. Following this idea, If we have the ability to create connections virtually, are we not able to open portals that connect us from elsewhere as well? Would imagining be the first step to change? As Eliane Brum puts it in a recent article: “Imagining is political action. Imagining is an instrument of resistance. Imagining the future is already beginning to create the present ... We want to prevent them from rearranging the abnormal. And we want to do this in the most radical way, that of imagination. By rescuing the possibility of re-imagining other possible worlds. Physical isolation, yes. Social isolation, never ”.

I propose with these meetings to provoke me and others the not abandon our body, that we can dive in the power of this instrument that allows us so much, but that now seems to be compressed. It is compressed not only by the fact that we are unfolding in our homes, for those who have a home, but also because of an irresponsible mismanagement that makes us physically and mentally ill.

Everything today passes through the body, as Marcelo Evelin, choreographer and perfomer says, in conversation: “What has happened today has happened to the body. It is the body that is being infected, it is the body that is dying, it is the body that is afraid of another body ... ”. Now more than ever, there is a need to expand internal spaces and create spaces with others. It is in this corporal space that I have found strength and peace. I believe that being with other artists interested in change, in imagining new realities, can be a start to transform how we live and relate to this planet.

It seems that the notion of time is now another, an extended time, which has much more to do with creation than with exhibition or production. It is also important to identify who has that time and who has access to this virtual world. Could it be that with the expansion of the virtual world for all our activities, also expands a social abyss already announced for years? The pandemic appears to have been an accelerator of the future in many spheres. How can we think of actions not only for now but that will continue in a post-pandemic world?




The meetings have already been held with Mana Lobato, Lara Fuke, Eleonora Artynsenk, Amarcel Mara, Herika Reis, Maria Luiza Tiburi and Isadora Franco.

Moving the body is a political gesture and self-care is revolutionary. As in so many other moments when the body in a state of crisis revolted, transformed, moved, the year 2020 in Brazil calls for this internal and external movement again.