‘The Last Dream of Diego and Frida’ will premiere at the Met in New York

The dancer and choreographer Deborah Colker (Rio de Janeiro, 1961), who returns to Mexico to present her work Dog without feathersadvanced to The Day who prepares the choreography of the opera Frida and Diego‘s last dreamby the American composer Gabriela Lena Frank, with a libretto by Nilo Cruz, which will premiere in 2026 at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in New York.

The piece talks about love, art, colors, cultures. I also want to delve into surrealism, because Frida Kahlo was very surrealist, and in Diego Rivera’s murals that talk about the socialist world and indigenous influences. Right now I am with all this inspirationthe Brazilian creator indicated in an interview.

The opera, which will be presented in Spanish at the Met, is a fictional story, inspired by the lives of Mexican artists.

According to the libretto, three years have passed since Frida’s death, and Diego mourns for his wife. On the Day of the Dead she prays for his return, and La Catrina, guardian of the underworld, grants her wish allowing Frida and Diego to rekindle their relationship once again.

Frida is an icon, she is a symbol, that’s why I want to refer more to the person, to the details. For me the figure of Frida is very important because she was as if imprisoned in her own body, so I want to talk about her imprisoned body when she experiences the problem with her leg and then the accident she had and that constant pain with which she lived. I want to talk about thatadded Dance Company director Deborah Colker.

On the experience of working with singers instead of dancers, as he already did in his previous opera Ainadamar About Federico García Lorca, the choreographer affirms that it has been a good experience: I have to make the singers dance, they all have a body and the voice is impressive, the voice is also part of the body and needs movement.

About his work Dog without featherswhich will be presented in the Miguel Covarrubias room of the University Cultural Center and in the Auditorium of the State of Guanajuato, Colker explained that it is a very profound work inspired by the homonymous poem by João Cabral de Melo Neto. He talks about contradictions, tragedy, misery, poverty, and the cultural wealth of the people, that of a resilient and living people.

An inspiring place

The poem, written in Barcelona and published in Brazil in 1950, evokes the flow of the Capibaribe River, which runs through the center of the city of Recife, capital of Pernambuco, where the poet João Cabral was born. “It is a place with a very inspiring, fascinating culture, but when Cabral wrote it he talked about the mortality rate of children, of many people who die at an early age and that drew attention, and until now the problem is the same in that place .

He spoke in his poem about carelessness with the river, with nature, carelessness with children, with geography, but it is a text that not only speaks of carelessness, but also of the strength of the place, and I chose to make a work with the force, with that intensity where the body of the settlers is a body of warriors who wear mud as armor and then my company appears with that armor, and there is the contradiction of life and death, the fight, the silence, the resistance and acceptance, passivity.

Dog without feathersby Deborah Colker, is a sensory experience that combines dance, physical theater, music and image, where the dancers’ bodies are transformed into symbols of struggle, resistance and hope. The work was awarded the 2018 Benois de la Danse Prize for Best Choreography.

For 30 years, the dancer and choreographer has made experimentation the hallmark of the group that bears her name. “Experimentation is my word, I always experiment, experimenting is my north and if sometimes I have a poem or a book I must experiment with a script, a story, an idea, a music.

For example, when I work with opera I have to experiment with the singer, how he feels, what he thinks; How I can mix and work on ideas, dramaturgy with people and also experiment with space, for me it is an alchemy.

Choreographer of The Rite of Springby Stravinsky, his most recent piece, when referring to the nature of movement, expressed that all We have an intelligent body with knowledge, that thinks, feels, expresses itself, sings and dances; So, the body must be together with the experiences of life, with thought and study. In my work I try to see this together with other languages, and I am always learning.

The creator maintains: Dance gave me the possibility to express thoughts, ideas, my energy, because dance needs the body. Dance allowed me to unite the energy I have in my body with all my thoughts and feelings..

The Deborah Colker Dance Company, one of the most innovative groups on the international scene, will present Dog without feathers at the Cervantino International Festival on October 25 and 26 at 8 p.m., at the Auditorium of the State of Guanajuato. On October 30 at 8 p.m. and on the 31st at 6 p.m., in the Miguel Covarrubias room of the CCU (Insurgentes Sur 3000, Ciudad Universitaria).