In this episode, professor and choreographer Silvana Cardell contextualizes the work of the Mimulus Dance Company through the lens of adjacent histories and influences: Cardell from Argentina and Mimulus from Brazil.
In this episode, professor and choreographer Silvana Cardell contextualizes the work of the Mimulus Dance Company through the lens of adjacent histories and influences: Cardell from Argentina and Mimulus from Brazil.
Watch a clip of Por Um Fio:
https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/mimulus-dance-company/por-um-fio/
Insights and influences, Silvana Cardell:
In Buenos Aires, Cardell learned under the mentorship of Chilean choreographer Ana Itelman and grew up attending Oscar Araiz’s performances. From them, she understood what it took to become an artist. Their work was influenced by German expressionism's emotional depth and American dance's physicality. Iteman and Araiz were former students of German soloist dancer Dore Hoyer and American choreographer Miriam Winslow, who was strongly connected to Jacob Pillow, first as a Denishwan student in 1932 and later returning in the 1940s to perform her own work. These influences, along with a strong foundation in contemporary dance forms, ballet training, and traditional Argentinean dance forms, determined the quality of Cardell's early work, which connects to the Mimulus Dance Company’s style. Pursuing artistic growth, influenced by teacher Ana, who had been faculty at Bard College, Cardell moved between Buenos Aires and the U.S. throughout the late 1980s, first as a student at The University of the Arts, finally settling in the U.S. in 2004 after graduating with an MFA at Temple University. Her educational journey in Philadelphia led to work with key figures in the dance community, such as Manfred Fishbeck and Merian Soto, mentors and collaborators who fostered a creative dialogue that extends into her creative work, today.
[Music begins, composed by J.S. Bach, performed by Jess Meeker]
NORTON OWEN: Welcome to PillowVoices, a production of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival with content from the Pillow Archives. I'm Norton Owen, the Pillow’s Director of Preservation, and it's my pleasure to introduce your host, Silvana Cardell. Cardell is an Argentinian artist, professor of dance, and Guggenheim Award-winning choreographer now based in Philadelphia. Here she discusses the work of Mimulus Dance Company, looking at adjacent histories and influences: Cardell from Argentina and Mimulus from Brazil.
SILVANA CARDELL: Mimulus Dance Company amplifies Latin American voices by combining dance styles and art forms to depict universal human experiences. Choreographer Jomar Mesquita directs the company, originally founded by his parents. Mimulus is not only a dance company—it's also a family legacy that compels the world to acknowledge Brazilian dance forms, artistic heritage, and its diverse nature. From its base in Belo Horizonte, Mimulus combines the elegance of ballet and contemporary dance forms, the intimacy of contact improvisation, and the communal joy of social dancing in what Jomar Mesquita describes as a "contamination" of styles. This innovative approach challenges the norms and creates a rich, multi-layered expression of cultural and personal narratives. Listen to this short clip from a post-show talk. The company had just made its US debut in 2007 with a piece titled Do Lado Esquerdo De Quem Sobe (On the left side of those going up). As Pillow Scholar Maura Keefe asks a question, and Jomar Mesquita responds.
MAURA KEEFE:One of the things that's so interesting is to see the different not just Brazilian social dances here, but we've see some elements of social dances from other places and like could you say something about your I think of it as research that you do that you do with your body to learn other social dance forms? Could you talk a little bit about that?
JOMAR MESQUITA:Yeah, of course. We started doing with the school in 1990. And we teach social dance. Many styles of social dance. Even North American social dance with we also try to teach that. And the Brazilian social dance Cuban social dance and many, many styles. And since the beginning we try it we, we have tried to, to create something new, something different with social dance. So, in order to do that, we also have studied contemporary dance, circus, theater, many other techniques and we try to preserve the essence of our, the basis of our work that is social dance. But we will add that these other techniques contaminate, sorry for my English, okay, contaminate our social dances. And in this work, we show of course, mainly the Brazilian social dance, but we have some Cuban music, some Argentinian music, but as these songs are played by very Brazilian music, musician, that is Yamandu Costa, it sounds like Brazilian music. And we use this other Latin American music because this same historical process happened the same way in many other countries in Latin America, this closer contact between African culture and the European colonizers, colonizers culture. So, we are of course we have here a little bit of contemporary dance, a little bit of Cuba there's also a little bit of the acrobatic our Lindy Hop.
SILVANA CARDELL: Jomar's artistry and leadership, supported by his wife's performances and his mother's costume designs, exemplifies how family and embracing community can be both: the foundation and the inspiration for great art. It is inspiring to see how their familial bonds and shared cultural backgrounds translate into dynamic performances. Their work deeply resonates with my dance background and Latin America's rich cultural heritage. Born in Argentina, I grew up in an immigrant family that cherishes art. I was exposed to the arts at a very early age. I studied visual art first, and later, I discovered dance. In my work, I often explore themes of human connection and cultural identity and I challenge dominant cultural narratives. I blend styles and I reach into other arts, merging dance with the richness of visual art, theater, and film.
Connecting back to Jomar Mesquita's work Por Um Fio (By A Thread), I relate to his work integrating visual art and dance, in this case, through the life and work of Brazilian visual artist Artur Bishop Rosário. Rosário spent much of his life in a psychiatric institution, creating work using found materials such as fabric scraps, buttons, and threads. Por Um Fio set designer Ed Andrade collaborated with Mesquita to vividly reflect Rosário's environment and materials, suggesting found objects and recycled elements and evoking Rosário's method of collecting and repurposing items to make art. In Por Um Fio, threads and fabrics dominate the stage, symbolizing the connection between the tangible and the ethereal. At the same time, written elements on costumes and backdrops mimic Rosário's compulsive inscriptions, adding narrative depth and offering a window to his internal experiences and the external world.
In Por Um Fio (By a thread), Mesquita treats the movement as a fabric, weaving legs, arms, and spine, drawing parallels to Bispo do Rosário's embroidery techniques. Let’s listen to a short clip from a post-show talk moderated by scholar Phillip Szporer. First, we will hear from Jomar about how he approached this subject matter choreographically. Then, we will listen to Ed about how he approached designing and incorporating the set.
JOMAR MESQUITA:Also because it was something totally far from the dance (Szporer: Mm-hmm). So we try to create choreographies, embroidery because the artwork of to Bispo do Rosário was all the artwork with the sew, stitch (Szporer: With threads. Yeah). Threads. Yeah. He even, as he was all the time during the 50 years he created his artwork, je was inside the hospital inside a mental, mental (Szporer: The asylum). Yeah, exactly. And he didn’t, he didn't have material to create his artwork (Szporer: Mm-hmm). So he unstitch? (Szporer: Mm-hmm ) unstitch his uniforms for example. And he took a lot lots of things up the garbage, from the garbage. And so he made them lots of wonderful embroideries. So he tried it we tried to create choreographies like that: embroidering arms and embordering legs, embordering our, our bodies (Szporer: Hmm). It was at the same time, as I told you very difficult very, it was a really a challenge for us. But it was very good because it, we were we must take another different way to create (Szporer: Mm-hmm). Totally different from the other shows.
PHILIP SZPORER: I want to bring you into the conversation Ed because this set, some of you can see portions of the set but there's all kinds of stuff here. There's all kinds of inscription on the floor, and it feels like a world unto itself. Talk a little bit about the creation, the ideas that propelled you to make this kind of incredible artwork.
ED ANDRANDE: Yes. Sorry for my English because (audience laughs) but of course it's very difficult to when we, we have a visual artist as our because we inspired our work by this, this artist who was a visual artist. So for me, as a set designer, so it's difficult when you have this, this, this thematic. And because we cannot try to imitate him, to mock him, you cannot do what he does what he did, it's impossible, but there is a rich universe to inspire us, visual universe. So, it was a challenge in this way, but what also. we decided to pick up some points, some aspects, some aspects, some characteristics of his works, and of course, and also mainly finding a sense for us, you know, concept. So, his, his insanity and also, he was a genius as an artist, he was a kind of visionary man. And so, we brought some, for me, there is a kind of ambiguity, this insanity, the unconscious, and this generality. So, there is this the shadows, there are the bulbs, then this, this tangled wires that bring this feeling of something, this madness, and so, we pick up some points. But mainly this the, he used to write because he, he used up before he was in the hospital, he was a salesman, and he used to write on, on the fabrics, everything he saw in the world. So, a bit of his, not, not his history, but the world history. And it inspired as we decided to write here, a little of our history, but not exactly something logic, but the feelings and, and also some aspects of, of his trajectory. So, we brought some of his characteristics that are presenting his work in his hallucinations, hallucinations, he said that, God asked him (Mesquita: Yeah) to prepare an inventory, (Mesquita: Inventory. Yeah. Of the world) Of the world (Szporer: Hmm).
JOMAR MESQUITA:So, during all his life, during this 50 years in the hospital, he maybe 20 hours a day, he right in the clothes in the coats, very beautiful coats he created. He writes in his sculptures, all things he couldn't see in the world (Szporer: Hmm). So, we tried to do something like that. In our set. For example, we have the names of all the dancers have already dancers in our company (Szporer: Right), all important people have passed in our life during more than 20 years of our school, 20 years of the of the company. And a lot of information about our shows and our family because Mimulus were, was created by my parents. So, we are a family working together. And so, we tried to do that our inventory (Andrande: Yeah), but in a very disorganized (Andrande: Yeah) and beautiful way (audience laughs) (Andrande:Yeah, that's what it is).Yeah, and, it's not ready. (Andrande: No) The show was, the premiere was in 2009 (Szporer: Uh-huh) and we continued to write, and the maybe we invite some people (audience laughs) from the US to continue to write (Szporer: Uh-huh. So it's a work in progress). Yeah.
SILVANA CARDELL: This parallel is not just thematic but is also physically embodied in the dance. Rosário's threading and weaving of materials into complex tapestries mirrors how Mesquita choreographs dancers' interlocking bodies. Each dancer's movement complements another's, like threads merging to form a cohesive fabric. Let’s return to the conversation with Jomar from 2012. Here, he talks about how this concept is also made audible, visualized in the music score of the Por Um Fio.
JOMAR MESQUITA: All the time, we work with the idea of the, the thread. The thread in the lighting, in the set, in the costumes, in the choreography, in the movement. And so I when we created the show, I was trying to find a way to also put it in the soundtrack. And onc one of the dancers give me a CD. She's a French singer. Because she used this sound during all this CD, as we've done in the soundtrack. So I mixed this sound that is, for me, it's a kind of thread, metaphorical thread. And during all the, the soundtrack and this thread is cut, cut off at the end of the visual. That's it. Some, some people when they watch the show, they told me that they they, at the end of the show, Oh no, that was terrible. It bothers me that that sounds and I said great. That was my (audience laughs). Thanks.
SILVANA CARDELL: Fusing dance forms creates a rich, textured expression of movement that transcends traditional boundaries. By incorporating elements of contact improvisation, Mesquita enhances the sense of spontaneity and physical dialogue between dancers. This technique involves dancers responding physically to each other's movements in real-time, often with improvised, fluid interactions emphasizing physical touch and weight sharing. These interactions challenge the dancers to remain connected and reflect the unpredictable yet harmonious nature of Rosário's artworks, where objects and materials find unexpected coherence.
Jomar Mesquita's piece Por Um Fio deeply resonated with me, not only because of its rich Latin American influences and visual art references but also because it connects to my earlier work created in the 2000s. This connection is significant, and it highlights a parallel integration of cultural and artistic elements in both our works, underscoring a shared creative process that spans continents and decades. For example, the first full evening performance I created after I moved to the US in 2002 was entitled Ciudad Evita, inspired by Daniel Santoro’s poignant drawings from Manual del Niño Peronista. In this performance,I addressed themes of cultural identity and historical narratives, merging dance and visual art through a deconstructive lens. I broke down the traditional tango movement and social dance elements to explore broader societal issues.
The choreography portrays Evita Perón in a repetitive duet between two women, each one represents both sides of Evita: her indomitable spirit and the vulnerable, failing body. In this performance, Evita’s body was a metaphor, as if her body represented a territory at risk,embodying Argentina after the economic and political fallout of 2001. I created the choreography as a broken tango, portraying Evita’s young body failing. The entangled bodies of these two women falling and pulling each other to stand up depict Argentina’s rapid economic collapse in 2001, underscoring the lingering and everlasting effects of colonialism on the nation's identity and stability.
Ciudad Evita mirrors the thematic exploration and deconstruction of social dance in Por Um Fio, where dance, music, narrative, and visual arts delve into the complexities of identity, place, and memory to depict the main characters' oscillation between genius and madness, public, private and life and death.
As Latin American choreographers who emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Jomar Mesquita and I weave the rich textures of our cultural heritage with contemporary narratives, hoping to craft performances that resonate with local and global audiences. By reflecting on our societies' vibrant, complex tapestry and illustrating our shared mission we push the boundaries of dance while maintaining a dialogue with our cultural legacy. Here, again, is Jomar speaking in 2012.
JOMAR MESQUITA: And it's really a very rich work, not only because we have the participation of all the dancers, but of course, the strong participation of Ed with this kind of dialogue we tried to do among choreography, light, set, the participation of Rodrigo Marçal, our light designer and the participation of my mother that is our boss in fact (audience laughs), but also the costume designer.
SILVANA CARDELL: Jomar Mesquita's choreographic style is distinguished by his innovative fusion of traditional Brazilian social dance forms, such as samba, with contemporary dance techniques, acrobatics, and intricate partnering with elements of contact improvisation.
Mesquita’s approach to dance extends beyond forms; explores the dynamic interplay of movement qualities, theater interpretation, and music visualization. The music transpires as the bodies intertwine. He integrates the rhythmic complexity of samba with the fluid connectivity found in contemporary dance practices—a perfect fusion of dance and music.
Furthermore, Mesquita's integration of Brazilian dance elements like samba into contemporary frameworks revitalizes dance forms, giving them new life and relevance in contemporary performative contexts. The rhythmic footwork and fluid movements typical of samba transform these dance forms into a broader vocabulary of expression that resonates with contemporary themes and audiences. He extends the movement into new territories and expression.
Jomar’s work connects with my approach to creating dance by integrating visual art elements, deconstructing dance forms, and addressing personal narratives. Through immersive creative experiences, we strive to connect what can be seen and what is hidden or less obvious, drawing audiences into unique worlds that help them engage deeply with our era's social and political issues.
This approach resonates with my past work, which premiered in 2001 in Buenos Aires, just before I relocated to the U.S.. I collaborated with visual artist Jorge Perrin on Máquinas Simples, which featured a monumental flying pendulum and tilted floors. These elements symbolized the turbulent shifts in Argentina's politics and served well to capture the riots and turmoil of the moment, the sensation of the ground shifting beneath our feet. This approach made the stage a dynamic canvas where everything moved, even the floor. Light and shadow sculpted the space, enhancing the emotional and dramatic impact of the dance.
Por Um Fio (By a thread) and Máquinas Simples exemplify how dance and visual art can form a dialogue to articulate complex narratives of identity, culture, and place. These pieces reflect our ongoing exploration of the roots and evolution of Latin American artistic expression. The thread connecting these works is our commitment to encapsulating and communicating the nuanced experiences of our cultures, creating multi-layered narratives that resonate with personal and political dimensions.
Each piece is a particular tableau, where movement and art converge to reflect the dynamic interplay of stability and upheaval, continuity and change that characterizes our shared histories. This artistic synthesis enriches the viewer's experience and deepens the dialogue between performer and audience, making each performance a reflective mirror of cultural identity and transformation.
On the other hand, the artistic explorations of Latin American choreographers like Jomar Mesquita and the broader narratives within my work intersect with the complex aftermath of colonization. This historical context has shaped Latin American cultural and artistic landscapes, influencing how our expressions and identities are perceived and valued globally.
I also wonder if colonization left a legacy that often confines Latin American artists to certain traditional paradigms, such as the expected emphasis on cultural dances like tango, samba, salsa, and merengue. While rich and integral to our cultural heritage, these forms are sometimes seen as the sole representatives of our artistic capabilities. This narrow view can obscure the full range of creative expression of Latin American artists, reducing a rich tapestry of cultural innovation to a few globally recognized symbols.
Artists like Jomar Mesquita challenge these constraints and transcending traditional boundaries and redefining what Latin American dance can convey. His work delves into the rich complexities of human interaction, using dance as a universal language of empathy and connection. This approach directly confronts the colonial legacy by asserting that social dance that emerged from Latin American cultural identity is not restricted to its original form and purpose but can transcend as a vibrant, evolving force capable of eloquent global dialogue.
In the aftermath of colonization, choreographers powerfully attempt to reclaim and rearticulate identity. Through their innovative choreography, artists like Mesquita offer new narratives reflecting Latin American cultures' resiliency and dynamic nature. They provide a counternarrative to the colonial imposition of identity, showing the diversity and richness of what it means to be Latin American today.
By integrating contemporary themes and universal human experiences into their works, these choreographers assert that Latin American dance transcends historical and cultural boundaries, challenging the world to recognize the depth and breadth of our artistic contributions. This redefinition helps heal the wounds left by colonial narratives and positions Latin American dance as a pivotal, influential player in the global arts community.
Through artistic expression, we can unravel the colonial legacies, promoting a broader understanding and appreciation of Latin American cultures as complex, contemporary, and crucial voices in the global dialogue on art and humanity.
To this end, I’d like to close with Jomar's explanation of his company's name, which he shared at the Pillow in 2007.
JOMAR MESQUITA:Mimulus, it's the name of a flower. It's a yellow flower, that is, from this flower people extract an essence that is used it for timid people, timid people, this flower is known as courage flower, courage flower, because people say that this essence give courage to people give courage to timid people. And we think that dance does the same. And we think and we, we see it every day in our school and in our shows. We see that when we teach dance for, for people, people became more strong people became, become more, more with more courage to leave.
[Music begins, composed and performed by Jess Meeker]
NORTON OWEN: That’s it for this episode of PillowVoices. Thank you for joining us today. On behalf of Jacob’s Pillow, we look forward to sharing more dance with you through the films, essays, and podcasts at DanceInteractive.jacobspillow.org and, of course, through live experiences during our festival and throughout the year. Special thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts for helping launch this podcast series. Please subscribe to PillowVoices wherever you get your podcasts and visit us soon, either online or onsite.