Zona Franca

With Zona Franca, dance company Cia Suave from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro brings a political and poetic total experience with exciting Brazilian dance and music styles in the pressure cooker. The vibrant eclectic mix resounds with untamed energy: the call for freedom from a young and contemporary Brazil, eager to rise from the ashes.

Passinho, with its ultra-fast footwork, the tight rhythms of dancinha, confident vogue, samba and hip-hop are favourites among Brazilian youth. Dance and music styles are the perfect means of expression to quench the thirst for life and express the desire for freedom. Alice Ripoll combines this eruption of zest for life with theatre and song to make the call of the new generation deafening.
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We seem to find ourselves at an after-party, at that half-awake moment in the morning where everyone descends into their own world. But when the confetti balloons start popping and the party guests manage to challenge each other while twerking, one big pulsating ritual emerges that moves back and forth between vulnerability, anger, and joy. Zona Franca is an overtly political dance piece. It is about hope and optimism in a time of transition between Brazilian presidents Bolsonaro and Lula. How can a community develop in a damaged social context?

“(...) a powerful statement of contemporary dance embodied in contemporary bodies, leaving one to wonder how to define today's Brazil: a volcanic eruption of rhythms and identities trying to figure out what follows.” - Dance Art Journal

choreography Alice Ripoll
performers Gabriel Tiobil, GB Dançarino Brabo, Hiltinho Fantástico, Katiany Correia, Maylla Eassy, Petersonsidy, Romulo Galvão, Tamires Costa, Thamires Candida, VN Dançarino Brabo
assistant directors Alan Ferreira and Thais Peixoto
light design Tomás Ribas and Diana Joels
set and costume design Raphael Elias
assistant costume designer and seamstress Gabriel Alves
soundtrack Alice Ripoll & Alan Ferreira
sound technician and rehearser Renato Linhares
illustration and designer Caick Carvalho
photos Renato Mangolin
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production Natasha Corbelino, Corbelino Cultural
executive production Milena Monteiro
production assistant Thais Peixoto
co-production Festival de Marseille, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Charleroi Danse, RomaEuropa, Tandem Scène nationale, tanzhaus nrw, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Julidans, Les Mécènes DanseAujourdhui
diffusion ART HAPPENS