Terra Brasilis

20:00

Mercurius Company (in collaboration with I Danzatori Palatini) presents an expanded version of its 'Terra Brasilis' programme, following the travels of Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1958), a German landscape and ethnographic painter and illustrator who was commissioned to visit Brazil and other South American countries.

In the programme, Iberian dances and songs such as the Vira, Fandango Malaguena and Jota - taken to Brazil by colonisers - alongside the first historical reconstrution of the infamous Brazilian 'Lundu'. A feast of syncopated rhythms, castanets, vertiginous spinning steps and the euphoria which undoubtedly came as a cultural shock to the painter, used to the poise and elegance of German dance salons.

A large cast of dancers and period instrumentalists in a fully staged perfomance.

See also