Deborah Colker | |
|---|---|
 Deborah Colker in 2013 | |
| Born | 1960 (age 62–63) |
| Occupation(s) | Theater director, writer, choreographer, dancer |
Deborah Colker (born 1960 Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian writer, theater director, dancer and choreographer. She was an awardee of the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. Colker was also the movement director and choreographer of the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.
Colker began working as a movement director in 1984. She was involved in more 30 plays, working with Brazil's prominent director and actors. [1] She founded her dance company, the Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker, in 1993. [2] One of her early works was Velox, which explored movement and space and integrated movements from ordinary life. [2] It focused on fusing street, classical, and contemporary dances that do not only include dancers as performers, but also actors and fashion models. [3] One of the notable performances in the company's repertoire was Mix, which featured a collection of movements that investigate the physics of motion on a vertical stage. [4] This choreography won for Colker the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 2001. [5]
In 2009, she wrote, directed and choreographed the Cirque du Soleil production, Ovo . [6] Her works include 4 por 4 ("4 x 4"), which involved a quartet of dances that also featured high-class circus choreography. [7] This performance explored concepts such as containment, delicacy, limitation, daring, and transparency. [8]
Colker was responsible for the more than 6,000 volunteers who danced in the Rio Olympics opening ceremony. [9] She combined Velox and Rota performances, which were part of the repertoire of her dance company. [3]
Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.
Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne is a British choreographer whose work includes ballet, contemporary dance, dance theatre and musical theatre.
Ana Clara Guerra Marques is an Angolan dancer, dance teacher, and choreographer.
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Philippe Decouflé is a French choreographer, dancer, mime artist, and theatre director. As a child he travelled extensively around Lebanon and Morocco before learning his skills as a teenager at the Annie Fratellini École du Cirque and the Marceau Mime School. While frequenting Parisienne nightclubs he discovered and was attracted to contemporary dance, and he eventually moved to the Centre National de la Danse Contemporaine in Angers to study under choreographer Alwin Nicolais. After briefly working as a solo dancer, he formed the Découflé Company of Arts in Bagnolet in 1983, moving it to a former electrical works in the Parisienne suburb of Saint-Denis in 1995.
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Ovo is a touring circus production by Cirque du Soleil that premiered in Montréal, Canada in 2009. Ovo's creator and director, Deborah Colker, took inspiration from the world of insects. The idea for Ovo was not to be about the acts, nor dancing, nor insects, but about movement. The movement of life permeates the entire show, with creatures flying, leaping, bounding, and crawling. Composer Berna Ceppas brought additional life to Ovo with a score inspired by the music of Brazil. Ovo means "egg" in Portuguese and represents the underlying thread of the show. Graphically, inside the logo of Ovo, is an insect. The two O's represent the eyes and the V forms the nose and antennas.
Sergio Trujillo is a theater director, choreographer, dancer and actor. Born in Colombia and raised in Toronto, Canada, he is now an American citizen and resides in New York City. Trujillo was the recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Ain't Too Proud and the 2015 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for Memphis. He is the first ever Hispanic recipient of the Tony Award for Best Choreography.
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