August 19th – 24th, 2025 Dance Base Festival, Edinburgh (Special Preview)
September 24th – 25th, 2025 Festival Actoral, Marseille
45 minutes
A Solo of Disguise
Puff explores the concept of “disguise” as a recurring element in dances of the African diaspora—an element that transmits silenced cultures by concealing techniques, messages, traditions, or ancestral knowledge. The work explores the development of footwork techniques such as extremely rapid steps and the dissociation of body parts, which create illusions and suggest that something is being deliberately hidden from view. Puff—a light breath—also carries, in Portuguese, the meaning of something that vanishes as if by magic.
This solo performance marks a continuation of the long-standing collaboration between Alice Ripoll and Hiltinho Fantástico, who have been working together for the past seven years within the SUAVE and REC dance companies. Both collectives develop a hybrid language that merges contemporary dance with Brazilian urban forms. The two artists have collaborated in acclaimed works such as Cria, Lavagem, aCORdo, and Zona Franca, which have toured major festivals and theaters around the world.