We are pleased to announce that Brazilian artist and dancer Candai Calmon will be facilitating a workshop and presentation at Comfort Station based her CorpoTerritório (Body Territory) project, built on her research in Brazilian quilombos (communities of descendents of escaped slaves). Calmon will be part of our Close to There <> Perto de Lá exchange project in August and this program is a special preview of her work in that project.

This event will build a collective space for exchanges from contemporary dance and artistic quilombola knowledge. The workshop will bring the language of improvisation, creation and automatic writing as ways of understanding in the body about the places that each one occupies and transits. We will work with self-sensitivity, self-care and group practices.

Calmon will present the short documentary CorpoTerritorio (10m) made in the quilombos of the north of Bahia / Brazil, and open a conversation about the creative processes developed in the quilombos.

This project is made possible by the generous financial support of the Secretaria de Cultura do Estado da Bahia, curated by Flotar Programa with Juci Reis.

Bio:

Candai Calmon is a black woman, urban quilombola, and communitarian feminist. Professional dancer, ballerina, educator. She has been working in the field of dance for 18 years with artistic training within Brazil as well as other countries, with an emphasis in the field of Contemporary Dance, in its most afro-referenced, south-decolonial and feminist modalities. She has worked with several dance professionals and pioneers in the study of the "discursive body" and the "corporal states" in dance.

Calmon has a bachelor's degree in Gender and Diversity Studies from UFBA (Federal University of Bahia) and a Master's degree in dance from the same institution. She has participated in collectives of popular and ancestral culture such as Capoeira Angola and Maracatu de Baque Virado, in the city of Salvador, besides being involved with the political movements of solidarity economy in her city.

Her interests and research encompass the "feminine body, negritude and memory" for "empowerment, self-care and expression", where she has developed several artistic and immersive experiences with black women and traditional quilombola peoples, based on the creative elements of contemporary dance, improvisation and creation.

instagram: @candaicalmon and @corpoterritorio

https://candaicalmon.wixsite.com/candaicalmon