Lia Rodrigues' 'Furia' at Romaeuropa Festival: A Dance of Protest

Brazilian choreographer Lia Rodrigues (born 1956) premiered her latest work 'Furia' at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome as part of the Romaeuropa Festival. The performance features nine dancers emerging from a dump, dressed in colorful rags, to the sound of a traditional Kanak song from New Caledonia looped throughout. Rodrigues, who founded the Centro de Artes da Maré in one of Rio de Janeiro's largest favelas, uses the piece to denounce social brutality, particularly in Brazil under President Bolsonaro. The finale includes performers holding signs with messages like 'The Brazilian state is a murderer,' 'S.O.S. Amazon,' 'Who gave the order to kill Marielle Franco?,' and 'We need a world without prejudice.' The choreography blends ritual gestures, magical formulas, and candomblé influences, creating a baroque tableau of poor aesthetics and percussive bodies. Dancers assume forms of regal figures, animals, and frightening creatures, alternating between choral and solo sequences to evoke power dynamics, violence, and submission in Brazil's multiracial society. The piece ends with a man covered in red cloth, seated on two enslaved bodies, spraying black paint on a woman, ranting in French and indigenous languages, then running into the audience and disappearing into darkness.