Luiz De Abreu uses dance as the medium to deconstruct racialized identity. By getting Calixto Neto to perform the various stereotypes connected to the representation of the black body, especially during carnival time, where the black body vacillates between exoticism and eroticism, the choreographer turns the cliché on its head and mocks unwitting racists. In this radical solo, which ridicules the forms of classical ballet, he makes use of a unique choreographic language through which he refocuses the question of identity around the body. The violence of his writing reflects the urgency of tackling the colonial issue, the legacy of slavery and contemporary power relations. Demonstrating a subversive humour, the work is a straightforward critique of the subordinate condition of black people. From penile games to the misappropriation of the national flag, here dance is seen as the instrument of a physical liberation with emancipatory consequences, shifting the focus from the body-object to the body-subject.

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