Staging many a performance on the road, I started to notice we needed the ability to establish other new forms of communication with the public: forms of knowledge, swapping and exchange of our experiences. We needed a school. This idea started to haunt and stalk me every waking second, with the same passion I feel for every new production I create. The same passion, the same need to say something.
In our school we want to re-think movement; experience movement; sensitize, bring discipline, awareness and breath to the body - which thinks, changes, feels, and dances. A school of not only every type of movement technique, but also other classes: theater, music, fine arts, philosophy, photography, anatomy, dance, history. These are forms of knowledge that are fundamental for the formation of an intelligent body, enabled for creative, disciplined movement.
The dance school alone was not enough for a dream this big. We also needed a library, a video library, and a caf?. To enable the creation of a common ground, a collective space for the headquarters and the structure of the Dance Company, the school; a meeting place for people who relate to dance through art, health, and leisure.
This space will serve children, teenagers and adults; it is for professionals and neophytes alike. It’s a Center for thinking, being emotionally touched by, and building a body that feels pleasure in movement.
I always believed in creativity and irreverence. Concentration, discipline, education and focus are the basis for the creative potential of any individual.
Deborah Colker
After eleven months of intense reforming and construction work, with over 50 workers hammering out a 7-day-a-week schedule, the historic mansion at Benjamin Constant St., Rio de Janeiro, (50 meters from the subway), built in 1890 and which had already belonged to painter Victor Meirelles, has been transformed into a modern, ample, state-of-the-art facility. The architectural project, signed by Bruno Fernandes, from Archi5, gave a new shape to what, less than a year ago, was a building in ruins.
The recovery of this house contributes to the preservation of Rio’s historic heritage. The reform is, in itself, a significant contribution to the city’s historic legacy. Deborah’s novel ideas and proposals on education and creativity are taking shape throughout the 1400 square meters of the house “I want to be able to release to the market professionals who are capable of benefiting from all the information circulating around in the center”, she adds.
She refers to the series of planned activities of her new Center, including regular courses, workshops, lectures, debates, expositions, not to mention small dance presentations. We trust we are thus able to foster a permanent dialogue among the many different forms of art.
“This school needs the practices, experiments and deliriums of the company, just as the company is greatly enriched by living in contact with other professionals. Such cross-fertilizing mixtures always teach us new things, always bring about many possibilities for change”, the choreographer analyzes. The Deborah Colker Movement Center is born, thus, with a vocation for interchange. Partnerships have already been set up for the exchange of teachers, students and choreographers with Studio 3 Dance Space from São Paulo and more recently with UniverCidade, a private college. The idea is to continuously enhance the exchange with institutions from around the country and abroad.
The Brazil State Oil Company Petrobras is the exclusive and official sponsor of the Deborah Colker Dance Company since 1995.