Conceived and directed by : chameckilerner
Choreography and performance: Nao Yamada
Producer: Tanja Meding
Director of photography: Frank Stanley

Commissioned by Experimental Media and Performing Art Center (EMPAC), NY.

In SAMBA #2 chameckilerner chooses to have one samba dancer filmed in extreme slow motion, dissecting this iconic Brazilian cultural manifestation that reveals Brazil’s most profound physicality, the “samba”.

The choreographers work with the cliché of the samba challenged by the possibilities of subverting it. The frame, tight on the hips, is stolen from mainstream Brazilian TV, where Rosane and Andrea grew up. “The Chacrinha frame”, as they like to call, evokes a popular 70’s talent show on Brazilian TV, where, often, the camera zoomed tightly to frame the hips of the dancers, also known as the “chacretes.”

By slowing down the speed, they trust the movement to reveal itself in an unpredictable way. The tension between hips against legs creates a discomforting “dance of the flesh”, subverting the cliché and demolishing (metaphorically and literally) the materiality of the body into a disorienting landscape. This cinematic deconstruction allows for a visualization of what is most visceral about the samba: its primal
energy. chameckilerner aspires with SAMBA #2 to create an authentic and visceral experience, drastically changing the perception of the familiar “samba.” It is as if our eyes can finally see what our bodies always felt watching the samba: its lush, violence, and undomesticated physicality.

All people from all places bring their landscapes in their bodies. SAMBA #2 rescues this
landscape