A Dance For Madalena

A Dance for Madalena is a poetic tribute, through movement and performance, to Madalena Santos Reinbolt, a remarkable Black embroiderer and painter renowned for her vivid depictions of urban and rural life in 20th-century Brazil.

Choreographer Ana Pi will engage in a dialogue with Santos Reinbolt’s work, responding to the “wool paintings” on view in the exhibition Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets. Rooted in the road between the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia, Pi will evoke the vibrant landscapes and creative spirit of the coastal and interior regions of Northeastern Brazil, where Santos Reinbolt lived, worked, and traveled.

Pi has learned that gestures carry and connect the memories and traditions of Black communities across continents and generations. A Dance for Madalena will weave together movement, voice, texture, and color, bringing Santos Reinbolt’s textile vision to life while celebrating Afro-Brazilian experience, knowledge and spirituality.

Each performance is a 20-min solo dance, integrating a motif and gesture drawn from Santos Reinbolt’s work:

Friday March 7 – 5:00 p.m.  Motif 1: EYES CLOSING

Saturday March 8 – 2:00 p.m. Motif 2: FINAL CLEANING

Sunday March 9 – 2:00 p.m. Motif 3: INLAND EXPANDING

The first motif, “EYES CLOSING”, channels Santos Reinbolt’s spiritual and metaphysical presence. The second, “FINAL CLEANING”, serves a farewell to her life as a domestic worker. The third and final one, “INLAND EXPANDING”, traces the world-building of her needlework.

This live program is conceived and performed by Ana Pi. Organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud, AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement.

Please find more information here.