by Angela Guerreiro
Premiered at the „Körperstimmen ‘98“ at the Podewil, TanzWerkstatt Berlin. Further performances in Hamburg, Budapest organized by the Goethe Institute, Fabrik Potsdam und im Vooruit, Gent.
Angela Guerreiro’s latest creation has as its point of departure the situation of homeless, of people living in the streets, in shelters and vacancies. In four research phases she has, together with photographer Bettina Clasen, made journeys into different communities of homeless. Angela Guerreiro created this project from the necessity of caring, and through her expression, articulate a personal way of resistance towards conventionalised rules, regulations and conventions. Not as a socio-political statement, as a representation or biography of the people she came to meet and care for, but as a statement of personal opinion, or care for herself.
Through Angela Guerreiro’s signature movement language, distinct composition and personal anecdotes the four dancers confront the audience with an ethically complicated problem. It is movement created in a collaborative process where the dancers themselves have to fill a landscape of possibilities with their care for the self.
Be Nice or Leave, Thank You. is an encounter with reality, a dance on the margins of the stage, closing up to the city, to the map of the other, the silenced. The choreography is a search for an indispensable action where every aspect is undeniable, for a movement that can not be substituted but has acquired identity, body, in itself.
(Angela Guerreiro / Mårten Spångberg)
‘The choreographer and dancer Angela Guerreiro is considered as the most successful ambassador of culture from Kampnagel. Rightly, so as her dance piece Be nice or leave. Thank you. undoubtedly proves. The Portuguese adapted the delicate issue of homelessness with artistic integrity, free of any social fighting or kitsch touches, without condemning or judging, in the frame of short stories, in which the ‚heroes‘ ended up on the street.’ (Hamburger Abendblatt, 14.11.98)
Dance the homelessness? What at the first view seems presumptuous and nearly impossible, is miraculously achieved in Angela Guerreiro’s Be nice or leave. Thank you. (…) until now Guerreiro’s most subtle and best piece.
(Hamburger Morgenpost, 14.11.98)
Artistic Direction & Choreography: Angela Guerreiro
Created & performed with: Aloisio Avaz, Fiona Gordon, Cristina Moura, Marc Rees
Dramaturgy: Mårten Spångberg
Music: Nicolas Roseeuw
Set-design: Claudia Rüll
Light: Sérgio Pessanha
Costumes: Sofia Kreth d’Orey
Research-Photography: Bettina Clasen
Producer: DepArtment/Katharina von Wilcke
Special thanks to all the homeless people and employees of the initiative for homeless people, who helped us in Berlin, Hamburg, Paris and Budapest with their confidence, their time and their experiences. We thank Jörn Fenske, Hendrik Lorenzen, Stefan Semrau and the Fa.Checkpoint Charly Hamburg for their advice and support.
A co-production by Podewil, TanzWerkstatt Berlin and Kampnagel Hamburg with Angela Guerreiro Productions in Cooperation with DepArtment With the support of Kulturbehörde der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg, the Kulturstiftung der Länder aus Mitteln des Bundesministeriums des Innern, Arts Centre Vooruit – Gent and the Goethe-Institut Budapest
Duration of the piece: 75 min.
A selection of Bettina Clasen’s photographic work taken during the research was exhibited at each Theater Foyer’s where the piece was performed.