In 1915, Ricardo Guiraldes and Alfredo Gonzalez Garano conceived the indigenous-themed dance project Caapora. Nijinsky was approached to choreograph. Though he accepted, illness prevented his completing what would have been the first “Argentine” ballet. The piece never came to fruition. With Anima Animal, Herman Cornejo and Anabella Tuliano evoke the original legend concept in a contemporary light, translating movement that blends ballet, modern dance, and theatrical story telling.
Anima depicts the mythological origin of the Guarani people living in south central South America, according to lore, the first race of people to be created. There’s a flash of harsh light. Dancers are
folded in on themselves, bent over, heads down. Coming to life, arms rise and extend as if testing possibility. We hear- a heartbeat.
Indigenous warrior Guyra (Cornejo) is ejected from the center of the group. At first he almost inadvertently leads. Joint movement is graceful, precise, exaggeratedly slow. Wordless voices echo.
It’s haunting. The cluster breaks apart and partners in succession, set each other off. Alberto Giacometti declared he was trying to capture the space between blinks. Here we see one sculptural configuration after another, gone before etched.
Elbows bend, arms whip out, often seeming to propel legs. Partners are lifted across one another’s backs. Men pirouette. Gurya leaps and whirls. Others watch, chests leaning forward as if subject to magnetic pull. The warrior pauses at the front of those gathered like a figurehead at the prow of a ship. He pays them no mind. Powerful and solid, he leaps, yet lands seemingly without impact.
One leg straight back and dragging, dancers move forward closer and closer to the floor/earth. Arms bend like mantises. Organ/moog notes resonate, strings emerge; a parenthesis of classical feel. The group manifests a wave bending forward and back as if boneless. Arms become wings. The sound of water – swelling, splashing. Enormous rumble. “Earth is consumed by a devastating flood.”
Guyra encounters Yvy, a woman from another tribe. (Ximena Tamara Pinto, a beautiful dancer exuding palpable emotion) “They share transcendent love.” Pas de deux. He’s fraught. Yvy smiles. He holds or supports his inamorata as she entwines. She cradles his supplicated head.
Three dancers on their bellies grasp the ankles of three upright who slowly move forward. Drums. Light bells. Those in back uncurl and stand. Yvy is drawn into the assembly and held aloft. Set down, she steps from one to another, looking in faces as if questioning. Thunder, storm. Figures fall to the side, blown over. Four couples fluidly lift partners, legs extended, then bent. Voices chant.
“Amid the chaos, Guyra injures a white man, an act that inadvertently takes the life of his beloved. In a poignant moment of transformation, he metamorphoses into an Urutau bird, soaring towards celestial eternity.” A solo by Cornejo. Desolation viscerally wrenches through the warrior body. Dancing is vigorous, control masterful, mien magisterial.
Choreography features sharp jerking, bent-leg fluctuation and refined, liquid grace. Dancers create symbioses. Bodies/creatures recognize and are dependent, but not the same. Pulling or being pulled is imaginatively featured. Aesthetics captivate. There’s not a weak link in the company.
Translucent costumes by Anabella Tuliano and Elsa Schenone appear organic. Lighting (Clifton Taylor) is evocative and mood specific.
The otherworldly score is a collaboration between Noelia Escalzo and Uji – the former integrating Argentine and Latin American music, the latter adding electronics that simulate natural sounds and reflect ancestral tradition.
“The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”
Alberto Giacometti
A marvelous evening.
All quotes are from the program. Read it first for clarity.
Photos by Carlos Villamayor
Group Cadabra’s Anima Animal
Artistic Director/Original Concept/Principal Dancer – Herman Cornejo
Choreography – Anabella Tuliano
Through February 23, 2025
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue
