Warning for Contemplation sections – Elenita Queiróz – Basis 56
Brazil –Switzerland
Warning for Contemplation Sections is a dance manifesto exploring resistance, exhaustion, rebellion, and the inexorable truths of bodily finiteness. Queiróz’s work investigates the interplay of struggle, wildness, collapse, mutual support, and the temporal nature of motion power. The piece confronts the societal demands placed on women, particularly the contradictions of motherhood and the cumulative wear of time, leading to both exhaustion and transformation. It advocates for resistance through stillness, contemplation, and raw expression, defying relentless expectations.
The choreography integrates concepts such as Portrait, Landscape, and Collapse, reflecting the fragility and resilience of aging forms. Performers transform into fleeting landscapes and fragmented portraits, evoking timeless yet finite encounters with the audience. Wildness surfaces as a dormant, untamed force, magnified by the vulnerabilities of aging flesh yet persisting with primal energy.
This work engages performers and viewers in a shared reckoning of connection, and motion’s ephemeral power. Collapse becomes not just rebellion but an acceptance of finiteness, a paradoxical liberation that embraces riot, stasis, and collective vulnerability as acts of profound courage. Through this epic, transformative performance, Queiróz critiques systemic inequalities, offering a vision of collective radicalism and vulnerability as acts of rebellion.
Credits
Concept, artistic direction, choreography, dance: Elenita Queiróz
Co-choreography, dance: Charlotte Mathiessen, Mara Natterer, Léa Thomen
Dramaturgical advice: Ted Stoffer
Music composition: Raoul Alain Nagel
Costumes: Laura Oertle and Marisa Stutznegger – Oema Kostüme
Light design: Patrik Rimann
Production management: Elenita Queiróz – Basis 56
Duration: 60 min.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/elenitaqueiroz/warningtrailer
The piece has been presented at:
13.10.2022 TANZHAUS ZÜRICH (PREMIER)
14.10.2022 TANZHAUS ZÜRICH
21.10.2022 PHÖNIX THEATER STECKBORN
29.10.2022 LOKREMISE ST.GALLEN
30.10.2022 LOKREMISE ST.GALLEN
13.05.2023 ROXY BIRSFELDEN BASEL
Elenita Queiróz
Elenita Queiróz, a Brazilian-born choreographer, performer and cultural manager, combines passion, intuition and feminist themes in her work, most recently exploring the tensions within motherhood and grind culture. Based in Switzerland since 2016, she has collaborated with international artists and institutions and created her own work over 22 years. Recognized with the 2023 WerkbeitragSt.Gallen and the 2021 TanzPlan Ost Choreography Prize, her latest works include Warning for Contemplation Sections (2022) and The Fabulous Ones (2024). Queiróz holds a Master’s degree in Expanded Theatre from the Hochschule der Künste Bern, a postgraduate degree in Cultural Management from SESC São Paulo, and a Bachelor’s degree in Dance and Pedagogy from UNICAMP. She has recently collaborated with Brigitte Walk and Beatrice imObersteg, participated in the Paula Interfestival, Choreolab TPO 2021 and 2023, the IBK Bodensee Conference, among others, and worked with Konzert und Theater St. Gallen, choreographing Der Anonyme Liebhaber (2022) and performing in Breaking the Waves (2021) and Wilhelm Tell (2024).
https://elenitaqueiroz.ch/