A dance-film Premiere by artist-filmmaker Inês Sambas and dancer-choreographer Cris Marcondes. The online event is curated by sONgLineS Dowsers, organized in collaboration with our partnership Tribute Earth for the World Water Gathering MANAVAI WE ARE WATER.
The work researches experimentation in the body of ancestral records of cultural memory that Brazilian dancer/choreographer Cris Marcondes carries, in “conversation” with a Portuguese female ancestral figure: the water-bearing woman.
The Aguadeiras existed in the last century in Portugal and their job was to transport water in jars. They searched from the river to the famous fountains scattered throughout the village where they lived. The fountain, at the time, was the meeting point for these women who washed clothes, talked, played, whined and deposited their emotions, desires, and prayers in front of the sacred symbol of the Portuguese imagination: the fountains.
Water sources can be considered cultural territories of Portuguese ancestry and the ancestry of many peoples. The water woman consecrates the water and draws the magic of ancient times and ancestors, through singing and work.
In this film, Cris Marcondes and Inês Sambas, bring together image, and body/territory, they immerse themselves in the gesture, in the ancestral voices, and the waters … and let the emotions, memories, and expressions flow into movements, weave images permeated by songs, drums, and prayers that refer to the liquid universes of the body, tracing winding paths of water, crossing portals, borders … fountains … on the threshold of falling, of the duality of existence, where the sweet salts, where water in a unique form of a stream, it may be just a drop.
Cris Marcondes (Brazil) is a dancer, actress, choreographer, and dance teacher for over 25 years. She is also a therapist and medicine woman, bringing the traditions of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous cults. Based in Portugal, she is a researcher of Portuguese and Celto-Iberian traditions, creator of the multidisciplinary Aguadeiras Project, and of the Alchemy of Soul Therapeutic Program, where art and spirituality come together for artistic experiences and integrative healings as a form of Quantic Activism for the Planet.
Inês Sambas (Portugal) is a visual artist, photographer, and film director. She lives and works in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal since 2019. Her research has been mainly Video Dance and Performance, as a way of spiritual healing and connection with the Earth. Thus, her work has been connected both with the tradition, ancestral knowledge, and intangible heritage of Portugal, but also with what is invisible, divine, and sacred.
World Water Day has become a time to bring together the many individuals and groups working to protect, restore, and celebrate this precious resource that is water.
The Unify Livestream will begin via Facebook at 18h GMT / 11 am PDT on March 22 with a Synchronized Ceremony at 22h GMT / 3 pm PDT.
Besides a discussion with Inês Sambas and Cris Marcondes will premiere through the Invisibledrum web platform and social media.
Monday, March 22nd’s World Water Gathering MANAVAI Please join in this global Prayer!Sign up at https://www.worldwatergathering.com/
