Marco da Silva Ferreira: Carcass (Carcaça)

Marco da Silva Ferreira’s 10-member company electrifies the stage with wholly committed dancing. These thespians hold nothing back in their involvement in today’s realities. The dancers perform complicated footwork that brings together standardised folk dances with contemporary urban dance styles.

In Carcass (C A R C A Ç A ), the performers perpetuate a total theatre of images, supported by vocals, music, and set design, with a new original choreographic language steeped in folkloric realities. Sharp staccato percussive beats emitted from the drums of master musician, Joao Pais Filipe, set the stage for the entrance of the dancers.

The dancing is solid, with the elevated level of technical excellence demanded by Ferreira’s choreography: a combination of folk, gymnastic, and original moves, which coalesce into a very down to earth original language adapted to his vision of reality. His choreography is a movescape of constantly evolving semiotic images, which require little or no effort to decipher: hard-hitting anti-fascist statements, calling for the tearing down of all barriers and walls for a true equality: to be made available to all inhabitants of this fragile universe we all share.

A highly diverse cast of ten dancers and two musicians form an unconventional and joyful dance ensemble. The dancers perform complicated footwork that brings together standardised folk dances with contemporary urban dance styles that appear in cultures considered minorities (for example, LGBTQIA+ communities or communities of the ex-colonies).

Marco da Silva Ferreira is a self-taught choreographer/dancer who developed his signature style through dance genres that merged into an urban context with afro-descendant influences. A professional dancer since 2008, he has worked with names such as André Mesquita, Hofesh Shechter, Sylvia Rijmer, Tiago Guedes, Victor Hugo Pontes and Paulo Ribeiro.

In his choreography, Marco da Silva Ferreira uses dance as a tool to investigate communities, the construction of a collective identity, memory and cultural crystallisation.