Ana Pi’s artistic practice is anchored in her decades-long research on Afro-diasporic and urban dances. As a choreographer, she studied the history of movement practices while travelling across various geographies, and thus strongly situated the notions of transit, displacement, belonging, superposition, memory, colours, and ordinary gestures within her creative work.

RAW ON—Ancestral technologies of resistance, a collaboration with Luso-Angolan producer DJ Firmeza, was developed through Ana Pi’s exploration of vitality generated through the act of walking in Angolan Capoeira.

The Ginga walk, named after the Angolan anti-colonial warrior queen, finds its intensity in the singular flow and percussive aspect of post-kuduro music. Guided by the sonic threads created by DJ Firmeza, Ana Pi’s choreography constitutes a new reading of traditional sacred and popular dances, where there is always a dialogue taking place between the basic steps and the drumming. Following the performance, the artists invite the audience to collectively celebrate the power of intuition, silence, common ground, raw materials, and ancestral gestures.

Video in the HKW Mediathek