Duda Paiva's Bestiaires in Bellevue

Bestiaires: a ballet for man and beast.

The concept of Bestiaires was born in a meeting between Ellen Horn, the director of Riksteatret and Duda Paiva after she watched the show Malediction at the international Figuren Festival in Kristiansand, Norway. Malediction was co produced by the Agder Teater in Kristiansand. From that moment on the company started to collaborate and shared a mutual believe to develop a multidisciplinary project with the goal to create an exciting and new theatrical language with DPC’s moving sculptures.

The result is Bestiaires [or ManBeast in Norway]. The production had its premiere September 20th in Dansens Hus in Oslo, directly followed by a tour of 30 performances. As you may expect from the productions of Duda Paiva, Bestiaires also has that special blend of modern dance and object theatre, in which humour and magic are dragging you to a magical and visual world. This time Duda Paiva is blowing a new wind into mythological figures and presenting an image of our time.

'Welcome to Bestiaires, an evening full of entertainment by and about Greek gods.’ Your host is Cupid, although a little worn out he is still the god of love. Unfortunately, nothing goes as planned. His fellow gods are fooling around with their entity and Zeus repeats his philosophical thoughts over and over again. Suddenly everything is possible; failure looms. And yet they celebrate the reconsideration of their immortality with you, the still mortal audience 

dans, objecten Duda Paiva, Ilija Surla, Esther Natzijl concept, regie Duda Paiva dramaturgie Jaka Ivanc muziek Erikk Mckenzie video Mark Verhoef, Wilco Alkema licht Kai Roger Havn objecten Jim Barnard, Jože Lasic, Kari Noreger kostuumadvies Catrine Gudmestad coproductie Riksteatret/Kilden Teater, Norway – Lutkovno gledališce Ljubljana, Slovenië – Laswerk/DudaPaiva Company, Nederland foto Riksteatret

The Brazilian-born Duda Paiva came to the Netherlands in 1996 and worked as a dancer with RAZ, Rogie & Company, Itzik Galili, Paul Selwyn Norton and Ron Bunzl. He soon discovered he had a love of and gift for objects and puppetry, and he decided to combine these forms with dance.

In five years’ time, DUDAPAIVA COMPANY has developed into a unique, international company that interprets the lively cross-over of dance and objects in a new and original form of contemporary dance theatre. Eight outstanding productions have taken them all over the world, the company won many prestigious awards which led to invitations from the Netherlands and abroad. Meanwhile, the company continues to investigate and perfect every possible form and level of dialogue, and try out and present new alternatives.

After Angel and Morningstar, DudaPaiva Company presents a new solo of Duda Paiva. This solo is inspired by the novel L'Arrach-coeur of French writer Boris Vian. Vian's light-hearted and humorous approach to the cruelty of man, the tantalizing and provocative imagery colourful symbolism, are painting a world that touches DudaPaiva Company.

"My creations are telling stories about people, their dreams, their fears and their search for love. About the battle with the world around them and how they find a way out. The stories I tell from dance in cross over with objects. By the abstraction of dance and the realism of the object I create a magical world where everything is possible; we lift the poetic imagination to a new and unpredictable level. This step is essential to portray the rich and layered world of Vian. " — Duda Paiva