Tapping into the Spanish she had learned from a Peace Corps stint in Venezuela, choreographer Jane Comfort and her company taught technique and repertoire to dance students and professionals in Brazil
PERFORMING AMERICAS' JANE COMFORT TOURS BRAZIL
New York City- based choreographer Jane Comfort and her company of dancers are newly returned from what Ms. Comfort calls "the most wonderful tour imaginable." The company toured throughout Brazil during the month of May 2003, performing at the Centro Cultural Theatro Guaira , in Curitiba, at FILO - Festival Internacional de Londrina and at SESC Vila Mariana in Sao Paolo. Jane's appearance at the Londrina Festival was made possible by a grant from The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions. While in São Paolo, the company was fêted with a dinner hosted by AI patron Sebastião Cunha and Banco Santos at Skye restaurant.
Tapping into the Spanish she had learned from a Peace Corps stint in Venezuela, the choreographer and her company taught technique and repertoire to dance students and professionals in Curitiba and Londrina. "They were intrigued with our movement vocabulary," Comfort recalls. She explains that the Brazilian dancers were new to some of the technique, even though "it has its roots in Capoeira… They were fascinated with it." Comfort and company were likewise fascinated by the work of a group of older modern dancers in Curitiba, whose rehearsals they were invited to sit in on.
Comfort, whose work has toured extensively through the U.S. but little abroad, found that the experience made her "aware of how beautiful the ideas are that Arts International has about cultural exchange." Before leaving for Brazil, she says, "I hadn't realized… what an exchange opportunity it was." She notes that both she and her dancers "adored Brazil" so much that they were ready for more at the end of their three-week tour. The trip inspired Comfort to rediscover her love for Latin America, and, she says, she would "love to go back….I just feel like a gate has opened that I want to go through."
Jane Comfort and Company creates dance theater that deals with contemporary social and cultural issues. Using a huge range of resources: singing, dancing, acting, film, puppetry, ballroom dancing, boxing, cross dressing, roller skating and sign language, the company creates deeply layered works that push the limits of what is normally called dance or drama. Performing Americas is a reciprocal touring partnership initiated by Arts International linking two prestigious non-profit presenter networks in the Americas (the National Performance Network and La Red de Promotores Culturales de Latinoamérica y el Caribe) More information on Performing Americas is available through the sites of La Red (www.redlat.org), NPN (www.npnweb.org), and Arts International (www.artsinternational.org).
