Entre Distâncias e Silêncios / Between Distances & Silences

Concept & Performance by Nefertiti Charlene Altán

14th annual Urban Visions International Festival of Dance in Urban Landscapes

São Pãolo, Brazil

October, 2021

Choreographer, performer, costume design, editing:Nefertiti Charlene Altan Camera:Cece Carpio Music:“Don’t Judge Me” by Fka Twigs,Heading One,Fred Again

This contemporary screen dance is a moving meditation on the distances & silences of migration and return widened by a global pandemic & ongoing racialized and gender-based violence.

Once embodying daily departures and arrivals, this site-responsive work was filmed at the remaining skeleton of the 9th Avenue port terminal built on xučyun (Huichin (Hoo-Choon) territory, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo (Cho-chen-yo) speaking Ohlone people. Born and raised on these lands by afro-indigenous Guatemalan parents, and returning after residing for 8 years in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, the artist and this site anchor the tension between stolen land and immigrant landings, between finding refuge and losing place.