Holland Festival: The Divine Cypher – Ana Pi

Does vodou, urban dance and experimental film influence the making process

Deren and Dunham spent years researching dance culture in Haiti, which meant a radical turn in their artistic practice. For Deren, it resulted in a new way of thinking about the relationship between the body and the camera, a book and hours of recordings. For Dunham, it meant creating a dance technique that would change the future of choreography.

In a dreamed and danced conversation with Deren and Dunham, Pi looks in The Divine Cypher at how those sources resonate and what remains of these sacred ritual dances today. What movements have been preserved as part of current dances? The circular Haitian dances are reflected in the cyphers , the battleground within a circle, of the street dance. And so, in this beautiful solo, Ana Pi interweaves the sacred and the everyday, tradition with the present, and collective with individual memories.