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Springback Academy is a mentored programme for upcoming dance writers at Aerowaves’ Spring Forward festival. These texts are the outcome of those workshops.

Things move but they do not say anything – Poliana Lima

Dancers performing in green lighting, wearing sequined costumes.

Poliana Lima, Things move but they do not say anything. © Álvaro Gomez Pidal

Springback Members can watch the video here: springbackmagazine.com/members/be-there/poliana-lima-things-move-but-do-not-say-anything

Can choreography really say nothing at all? Perhaps the title for Poliana Lima’s eight-woman ensemble, Things move but they do not say anything, is a trick, guiding us towards action rather than interpretation. Silver sequinned pants and tops (by Anais Zebrowski) razzle, dazzle and shimmer like underwater mosaics against the bare surfaces of the stage. The dancers perform long stretches of repetitive undulations while standing in place, facing the audience dead-on, breathing heavily into the suspended microphones above them after vigorously slapping flat palms to torsos. The true feat of the dancers is their ability to tap into a collective subconscious, shifting smoothly from gesture to gesture. Lima, in the programme notes, speaks of a feminist undertone to the work that was difficult to discern otherwise. After all, how can we see with sequins in our eyes?