As the lights went o? , the audience went silent, curiously waiting to see what was going to happen next. All we knew was the performance name, Agwa, the Portuguese term for water. Even if I had not been given the title of the performance, I could have guessed it after seeing the dancers perform. The performance Agwa portrayed the many dimensions of water through dance. The essence of water was clearly painted on the stage by the bodies of the dancers through “uid movements, powerful yet graceful acrobatics, and tranquil music.
The spotlight glistened o? the muscle tone of one dancer center stage, as he stayed crouched low to the ground. As the beat of the music started to pick up, and rainforest sounds echoed in the background. He begun to contort his body, starting with his left %ngers, the wave of energy slowly crept up his arm to his elbow, up to his shoulder, and across his body, then down his right arm.
He passed the wave to his torso, and soon I couldn’t keep track where the wave was coming from and going to. It was like an electric current passed through his body, like lightening in water. Two more dancers crept to the stage, each individual body “owed to the music in perfect synchrony.
Each movement was isolated, muscle by muscle, yet there was no jerking or abrupt movements. Their bodies “owed, just like water. Though most of the performance focused on the bodies and movements of the dancers, they used certain props like cups as a tool to measure their talent. First the cups were all over the stage. The dancers would perform a piece, and as the lights turned down, re-arrange the cups to portray a di? erent feeling. This time, the lights turned on and the cups were in 5 single %le rows.
Some dancers were at the back of the stage positioned in a line slowly moving their bodies to the beat. All the sudden, my focus was taken by a dancer to the left of the stage, he bent his knees, eyes forward and determined and took a big leap and sprung into a triple handspring across the stage. Each time his hands or feet hit the ground, it was precisely in the middle of the row. He did not knock, or bother any cup out of it’s place. These cups were not the focus of the dance, but a tool to show the precision and skill of the dancer. It takes power, and grace to accomplish that accuracy.
To me, this was an embodiment of water. Water is powerful, in waterfalls and hurricanes, but it is also graceful when it trickles down a stream, or slips down your cheeks. Without these powerful movements, not all of waters characteristics would be expressed. It shows the many sides of water and the power it subtly contains within its self. The music choice was calm, cool yet upbeat for the dancers to dance to. Each piece begun with a song with one beat of a drum playing by itself. Then begun to add more dimensions of sound and textures throughout each piece. The %rst drum would be low and steady, the next to come into the song would be upbeat and higher pitch.
There were also deep and rich “ute notes that held the melody of the song. Their was the essence of the Brazil in the music, I could hear the forrest and the city both at once. This music had the tranquil sound of water, in the melody and the beat. It didn’t sound just like any water, it sounded like Brazilian water. Water can be seen everywhere in this performance with this music and sound in pair with the dancers movements. Agwa painted the dimension of water through the “uid movements, graceful acrobatics and calm and cool music. The dancers took on the role of water, as any actress would take on a character to bring the audience into a magni%ed reality.
The dancers movements throughout the piece embodies the spirit water, through muscle isolations, and undulations. They danced beautifully to water and for water, like it was something they cherished deeply and wanted to thank. The way they handled the water so carefully throughout the performance and shaped their bodies to look like water, held an awareness that is lacked by our culture and many others. It is in fact a limited source, yet completely essential source for all life on this planet. It is mostly what we are made of, and what we take for granted the most.
