An exploration of the power of the gaze through dance

Maria is the name of the mother of God. The name of countless mothers and daughters. And the name of the dancer on stage. A name, beneath which so many projections of femininity overlap. In Solo for Maria, Maria Domingos Tembe dances as a woman torn between social expectations and self-assertion. In the first part of this (auto-) biographical choreography, the dancer and actor presents the audience with her movement repertoire and exposes her body to their habitual ways of seeing. The second part, directed by the director and choreographer Panaibra Gabriel Canda, addresses women’s rights and experiences of violence. By not just evading the audience’s gaze, but also by throwing it back at them with great intensity, Tembe produces a form of intimacy that demands reciprocity.