O Samba do Crioulo Doido

O Samba do Crioulo Doido is a sharp, head-on critique of the racial stereotypes associated with black bodies that haunt our collective subconscious.   

Luiz de Abreu made this play in 2004, in a Brazil plagued by racist and homophobic violence. In it, he employs a radical choreographic language, questioning identity and the way it is expressed in the body. It became a classic in the Brazilian contemporary dance repertoire, and almost two decades later was passed on to Calixto Neto, in a context where it still resonates remarkably.  

O Samba do Crioulo Doido is a parody of both carnival and classical ballet, shifting cultural signs to expose their unconscious connotations. The performer symbolically returns his body to its materiality. With transgressive humour, he breaks through the essentialising and exoticizing clichés in which the body is shrouded. O Samba do Crioulo Doido is a roguish appropriation of a body often considered subordinate, an invitation to repossess itself and its history, an approach aimed at creating a language of transmission, a tool for knowledge.   

• Calixto Neto is a choreographer and performer from Recife, Brazil, currently based in France. He works with many choreographers such as Mette Ingvartsen, Lia Rodrigues, Anne Collod and Bo-Kevin Jean, as well as developing his own projects such as Outrar and his most recent work Feijoada.