Of The Living Dead

Text: Christine Matschke

In her solo “Overtongue”, which was invited to this year’s Tanzplattform, Michelle Moura challenged the predominance of language over the body. In this dance grotesque, in which mind and physique decouple from each other in contradictory images of a single body, the voice was an essential tool. In her latest piece, “Lessons for Cadavers”, the Brazilian choreographer explores the genre of horror, drawing on current global ecological and social injustices in her country and around the world. Scenes of unpredictability, states of violence and fragility collide when Moura and her co-performers Clarissa Rêgo and Jorge De Hoyos move as if under the control of others. Contemporary humans as zombies, as uncivilised, soulless undead – as deprived of their humanity?