interview
THE INSATIABLE MIND BEHIND BRASIL’S LARGEST CONTEMPORARY DANCE COMPANY, DEBORAH COLKER SPEAKS TO JUNGLE ABOUT THE BUILDING OF HER CAREER AND HER NEW SHOW, CRUEL Perseverance and a lot of energy. These are, without a doubt, two of the most defining traits in the personality of Deborah Colker. The Rio-born dancer of Jewish Russian descent started out with ballet, learnt piano and went on to play volleyball, turning professional in the latter, before deciding to return to dance. After realising it was the right path for her, and from the very start in the early 80s, Deborah has choreographed shows, taught lessons, worked in fashion, theatre and carnival; she created special sequences for the World Cup and became the first woman to develop a dance for Cirque du Soleil, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Canadian company. To the passerby, Deborah, short and with a certain way about her - girlish, yet with a touch of tomboy – could go unnoticed in relation to her vast experience with dance. But one merely has to see her on the stage for any doubt to disappear; the vigour and precision with which she executes movements choreographed right down to the millimetre together with her company simply transform her into a giant. Even when she can’t be identified, whether amid the dancers or not even on stage, she has the ability to captivate the audience with her extremely fertile imagination, through the routines which she develops. Creating a singular and unprecedented style in Brasil, the trademark of the
company today, Deborah strives for more. And the mixture of contemporary dance with circus acrobatics enveloped broader influences, the necessity for which was determined by the very shows themselves. After Rota, in 1997, she realised the importance of staying close to the classical.
I’M VERY DEMANDING AND DON’T WANT TO REPEAT MYSELF. WITH TIME WE BECOME MORE SOPHISTICATED AND MATURE, THE RESTRICTIONS ARE BECOMING EVER TOUGHER. “Rota was greatly responsible for my returning to a love of classical ballet. Its technique benefits the existence of a contemporary dance company every day, and this can be seen in every sense: in the discipline, the aesthetic, the technique, breathing, and synchronicity”, she says. Then after Nó, in 2005, she took the gamble of applying more drama to the
shows. And her doing so was not in vain, as her latest work, Cruel, which Deborah is actually presenting around the UK, arriving in London in June, is inspired by the cruelty of youth and of old age, and by emotions such as love, passion, lust and rejection. Beyond winning innumerous awards in Brasil, the Deborah Colker Dance Company also received in 2001, in London, the Laurence Olivier Award for best choreography for Mix, a fusion of their first two productions, Vulcão (Volcano) and Velox. Talking to Jungle, the choreographer, now 50, reflects on her long journey since starting her own company, right through to her modern day recognition amongst audiences and critics alike. How and when did you start dancing? I started when young, studying ballet between the age of five and eight, and then I stopped so as to study piano and volleyball, and focus on my other studies. When I was 15 I began dancing once again, taking classes in ballet, jazz and tap dance. When I was 17 I started contemporary dance, and it was then that I chose to devote myself to dance, though I went on to study Psychology. In 2000, I returned to study piano again. I still dance classical ballet, even today, but it was in contemporary dance that I found a means in which to express my ideas, feelings and concerns. Where did the idea for the Deborah Colker Dance Company come from?
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