Dance and Technology

To innovate and to be daring is what he likes best. With his wide smile and shining eyes, he is the definitive Brazilian dancer and choreographer. Everaldo Pereira, whom took part at Digital Futures in Dance, an event which happens every year in the UK and invests in the development and innovation of Dance and Technology.

The opportunity came from the well known dancer and choreographer, Harriet Macauley and her Company "Pair Dance", for whom Everaldo will be dancing for a year. "Everaldo is a very rare kind of dancer, he mixtures strength and softness, which is just beautiful", said Harriet. To find out more about this wonderful mixture, we talked with Harriet Macauley:

So, tell us, who is Harriet Macauley?

- I am 33 years old. My astral sign is Gemini. My background is half Caribbean - half British. I am quite fiery, sensitive, very passionate and I love dialogue. As a choreographer my personality can switch quite quickly, I can go from being very social to becoming quite subdued. This can be beautiful for art, but not always for real life (laughs).

Everaldo missed the first audition and the Company gave him a second chance. Would you say that it was worth it?

- In fact, to get Everaldo the second time gave me the chance to think more carefully about the new performance. I observed how he moved, what he could bring to the richness of the work and how I could work with him. It was great because it gave me time to understand what his role would be in this new performance showing at Digital Futures in Dance on the 7th of September.

What do you like most about Everaldo's style of dance?

- Everaldo is a rare kind of dancer. He responds to sounds so easily, both with his back and his arms, which is beautiful. It's been a real experience, because not only does he have incredible flow but he also has great attack in his dance. I think it comes from Capoeira. He knows how to utilize the floor with a flow of strength and softness. That is the integration that we look for in male dancers.

This mixture of strength and softness might have come at the right time, as 'Duality' is also the name of your new performance. Could you tell about it?

- The work "Duality" is about the relationship between the choreographer and the dancers - me as a dancer and as a choreographer actually performing with the dancers and the performance is about how the two come together. The two qualities, two personalities all come from such different backgrounds and it's so interesting what happens in the space inbetween. People don't realise that as a choreographer you still need the dancers to interpret your work and that dancers need to consider all the specific parts of the performance that they are working on. I don't see my dancers as being less important than me because I'm a choreographer. They are the vision of my work. They are the mirror of my work. For me it is really important that during the performance "Duality" they show their creativity and constantly challenge me to react, experiment and grow.

How many dancers took part in this performance?

- There are four dancers from four different countries. England, Holland, Germany and the only male dancer is Everaldo from Brazil.

How has it been working with Everaldo, who is the oldest dancer at the Company?

- I like working with mature dancers because it helps the young dancers stay on track. I think that fundamentally the more experience you have in life, the more you understand how your body moves. By learning more words you are able to communicate in a new way. The older you become, the better you are as a dancer because you take more time to think about what you are doing and have a greater sense of space. Younger dancers sometimes get discracted by the acrobatics and galmorous side of dance, whereas the mature dancers have the body intelligence that allows them to go deeper into the movements and deeper into the performance. They dance completely differently to the younger dancers.