2012 Collision of Oswald de Andrade
and Vilém Flusser in media-dance.
Introduction
In the past years Brazil has seen immense changes in its social and anthropological organization. Changes that were fore- but un-seen by Vilém Flusser.
An acceleration and collision of Vilém Flusser’s views with the current practice of Brazilian theater and dance is the object of this research.
The project aims at catapulting Oswald de Andrade’s modernistic writings ‘Serafim Ponte Grande’ one hundred years later into the post-historic subset and clashing it some of Flusser’s concepts. Andrade discourses about a nomadic alter-ego – Serafim Ponte Grande in his excursions in the European early 20th century (1912).
This work is materialized in a reworking of the dramaturgy of a Tanztheater piece with music by Villa-Lobos (Köln 1992) for the group of the dance company from Palácio das Artes, Belo Horionte, MG Brazil, de-materializing it as video-HD recording in Brazil and re-assembling it during a residency at the Vilém Flusser Archiv colliding with text and concepts of Brazil, nomadism, and kitsch by Flusser.
The work would then put in the information networked-pool losing geography and temporality.
Manhãs de Minas – Oswald de Andrade
O teu cabelo é da cor das manhãs de Minas!O teu beijo é quente como o sol do Rio de Janeiro,Quando teus lábios reviram nos meus me envolvem do calor das águas de minha terra,O teu corpo é frio como o sepulcro do meu!Quando sais no foquestrotes aí por esses hotéis, na podridão das orquestras , sinto as tuas duas pontas espetarem o meu coração enquanto a minha lança se revolta contra a tua virgindade,Minha mão em concha apanha a tua bundaQuente , viva, musculosa e buliçosa,Encosto a cabeca na tua, aí por esses foquestrotes, por esses Charlestões,Encosto a língua na tua, mole, babosa, salivosa.
… Um dies zu erfassen, ist es zwar einfach, aber zu billig, Etymologie zu Hilfe zu rufen. Es ist zwar richtig, daß der Sitzende be-sitzt, und der Fahrende er-fährt, oder daß der Sitzende in der Gewohnheit wohnt und der Fahrende Gefahr läuft. … Vilém Flusser – Nomadische Überlegungen
Colchões Ortopédicos — an evening of Brazilian new dance, Dance Space, New York City, 29–30 October 1988.
Type: Production · Dance Concert / Presentation Date: 29–30 October 1988 Time: 8:00 PM Context: An evening of Brazilian new dance presenting repertory works and new works by Ricardo Viviani Location: Dance Space, 622 Broadway, New York City Institution / Organisation: Dance Space; self-produced by Ricardo Viviani; assisted by Dance Theater Workshop Role: Choreographer · Performer · Producer / Presenter Participants: Ricardo Viviani; Cheryl Hartley; Fernanda Meyer; Mark Bridges; Marcelo Galbetti; Fernando Vugman; additional production personnel as documented below Status: Historical Record — documented by surviving programme and press material
Record / Description
Colchões Ortopédicos was the title of Ricardo Viviani’s self-produced
evening of Brazilian new dance presented at Dance Space in New York City
on 29 and 30 October 1988. The surviving programme describes the event
as an evening bringing together repertory and newly developed works,
and identifies Dance Theater Workshop as an assisting organisation.
The programme documents six works: Girl, Serious Talk,
Blue Danube, Pavões, Colchões Ortopédicos
(Orthopedic Mattresses) and Rubber Gloves. It therefore
provides an important production-level record of a period in which
Viviani’s Brazilian and New York choreographic histories were being
brought together within the context of what was described publicly as
Brazilian new dance.
The production is particularly significant because the programme does
not present the works as isolated creations. It places works from
different moments of Viviani’s development into one evening, including
Blue Danube, identified as dating from 1982, Colchões
Ortopédicos, dated 1984–88, and Rubber Gloves, identified
as a 1988 premiere. This chronology makes the concert an important
document for understanding the continuity and transformation of
Viviani’s choreographic practice during the 1980s.
The Work / Creation
The surviving programme establishes the following six works within the
concert:
Girl — solo; music by Tom Jobim; choreography by Ricardo Viviani; danced by Cheryl Hartley.
Serious Talk — duet; music by Antonio Carlos Jobim; choreography by Ricardo Viviani; danced by Cheryl Hartley and Ricardo Viviani.
Blue Danube (1982) — solo; choreography by Ricardo Viviani; danced by Ricardo Viviani with Cheryl Hartley identified in the programme documentation.
Pavões — work in progress; music by Heitor Villa-Lobos; costumes by Mark Bridges; danced by Fernanda Meyer.
Colchões Ortopédicos / Orthopedic Mattresses (1984–88) — solo; text by Fernando Vugman; costumes by Mark Bridges; additional music by Marcelo Galbetti; bilingual version, choreography and soundtrack by Ricardo Viviani; danced by Ricardo Viviani.
Rubber Gloves (1988) — premiere; duet; music by Heitor Villa-Lobos; costumes by Mark Bridges; choreography by Ricardo Viviani; danced by Cheryl Hartley and Ricardo Viviani. The programme notes that the solo in Rubber Gloves was dedicated to Viviani’s father.
These works should ultimately receive individual records where their
histories, movement vocabularies, collaborators, music, costumes,
performances and critical documentation can be developed in detail.
This production record should remain focused on their coming together
within the 1988 concert.
Activity / Event
The concert took place on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October 1988 at
8:00 PM at Dance Space, 622 Broadway, New York City. The surviving
programme identifies the event as a presentation by Ricardo Viviani
and describes it as an evening of Brazilian new dance.
The concert was self-produced and was assisted by Dance Theater
Workshop. The programme acknowledges Norman Kean, Ron Nash, Maria di
Dia and the staff of the Edison Theater, particularly Karen, together
with Tim McCormack, Phil Barbieri, Jodi Johnson, Bob Hillebrecht and
Dan Carter. The production crew is identified as Jim Garvey, Mel
Marwitz, Linda Miller and McCormack.
Production
The production was organised around a repertoire that crossed several
phases of Viviani’s choreographic work. The programme itself provides
a useful internal chronology: Blue Danube is identified as a
1982 work; Colchões Ortopédicos as dating from 1984–88; and
Rubber Gloves as a 1988 premiere. Pavões is described
as a work in progress.
The production also brought together a group of collaborators whose
work extended beyond performance. Cheryl Hartley performed in several
of the works; Fernanda Meyer performed Pavões; Mark Bridges
was responsible for costumes for Pavões, Colchões
Ortopédicos and Rubber Gloves; Fernando Vugman contributed
the text for Colchões Ortopédicos; and Marcelo Galbetti
provided additional music for that work.
The programme’s biographical material also places these collaborators
within Viviani’s wider New York professional network. Cheryl Hartley is
identified as having danced on Broadway in Oh! Calcutta! and
as having toured Europe and the Middle East with Viviani. Mark Bridges
is identified as a costume designer with theatre, film and television
credits. Fernanda Meyer is described as a dancer, choreographer and
teacher with professional activity in São Paulo, Japan, San Francisco
and New York.
Intellectual Production
The production is also relevant to Viviani’s broader investigation of
the relationship between humanity, technology, gesture and movement.
However, the surviving 1988 programme functions primarily as production
and historical documentation rather than as a separate intellectual
publication. More developed statements concerning choreographic
methodology, technology and the conceptual framework of individual
works should be documented in their respective work or intellectual
production records.
Primary Source / Documentation
The principal surviving production document currently located is the
eight-page programme and press dossier for Colchões Ortopédicos,
dated October 1988. It contains the event announcement, programme,
artist biographies, acknowledgements, press listings and contemporary
press material.
The programme establishes the exact performance dates, venue and
address, the title of the evening, the six works presented, individual
credits, performers, costume and music contributions, production
assistance and a number of contemporary press references. It is
therefore the primary source for the production metadata presently
recorded on this page.
The same document contains contemporary press material describing
Viviani as a São Paulo-born dancer and choreographer presenting an
evening of Brazilian new dance in New York. One clipping states that
the concert would present repertory pieces and new works, while another
lists the Dance Space performances on 29 and 30 October.
The programme also preserves an important connection with the earlier
history of Colchões Ortopédicos. It identifies the work as
dating from 1984–88 and states that it had first been presented at
Dança na Praça, an outdoor festival in São Paulo, Brazil.
This provides a documented bridge between the Brazilian origins of the
work and its New York development.
The programme further preserves the contemporary terminology
surrounding the event: the evening is repeatedly described as
Brazilian new dance. This wording is useful historically because it
places Viviani’s work within the presentation and reception of Brazilian
modern / contemporary dance in New York during the late 1980s.
Research
This production is a key source for reconstructing the development of
Viviani’s choreographic practice during the 1980s. The chronological
spread of the works makes it possible to examine how movement ideas,
performance relationships, music, costume and technological or
structural approaches persisted and changed across several years.
Serious Talk is particularly relevant to the history of
Viviani’s interest in technology and systems of movement organisation.
Earlier documentation connects the work with an outdoor project in
Brazil and with computer-mediated variation of movement material.
The exact chronology of its original creation should be reconciled
against the surviving programme, interview material and other archival
sources rather than assumed from a single later recollection.
Blue Danube provides another important chronological marker.
The 1988 programme dates the work to 1982, while surviving New York
documentation records its presentation with Cheryl Hartley and later
critical response. The existing Blue Danube record should be
expanded as an individual work record and then linked back to this
production.
Colchões Ortopédicos is equally important because the programme
gives it a 1984–88 date range and records its development from the
Brazilian Dança na Praça context into the New York production.
Its combination of text, bilingual presentation, soundtrack,
choreography and additional music makes it a particularly useful
individual record for documenting Viviani’s dance vocabulary and
collaborative practice.
Relationship
This production is directly related to the six works documented in the
1988 programme: Girl, Serious Talk, Blue Danube,
Pavões, Colchões Ortopédicos and Rubber Gloves.
The production record establishes their relationship as a single
concert programme; the individual work records should document their
independent histories.
The production is also related to the professional collaboration
between Ricardo Viviani and Cheryl Hartley, as well as to Mark Bridges’
costume work. These relationships connect the concert to Viviani’s
wider New York performance history, including his professional
association with Oh! Calcutta!.
The production is further connected to Viviani’s Brazilian choreographic
history through Colchões Ortopédicos and the documented
reference to Dança na Praça in São Paulo.
Place / Context
The 1988 concert belongs to the New York phase of Viviani’s professional
career while retaining a strong connection with his Brazilian
choreographic background. The programme explicitly presents the event
as Brazilian new dance and identifies Viviani as a dancer and
choreographer from São Paulo.
Dance Space, at 622 Broadway, provided the New York setting for the
presentation. The production’s self-produced character, combined with
assistance from Dance Theater Workshop, is also significant: it
documents an independently organised presentation supported by an
established dance organisation rather than a conventional commercial
production structure.
Selected Work Contexts
Colchões Ortopédicos / Orthopedic Mattresses:
The programme dates the work 1984–88 and credits text by Fernando
Vugman, costumes by Mark Bridges, additional music by Marcelo
Galbetti, and choreography, soundtrack and bilingual version by Ricardo
Viviani. It was first presented at Dança na Praça, an outdoor
festival in São Paulo. The work deserves a separate expanded record
dealing with its movement vocabulary, text, soundtrack, bilingual
structure and relationship to the later New York presentation.
Blue Danube:
The 1988 programme identifies the work as dating from 1982. Existing
documentation of its New York presentation records Ricardo Viviani and
Cheryl Hartley and includes contemporary critical response, including
Jennifer Dunning’s observation in The New York Times that the
quality of movement in Blue Danube was particularly subtle and
interesting. The individual work record should be developed as a
pivotal document of Viviani’s early choreographic vocabulary.
Serious Talk:
The programme identifies the work as a duet performed by Cheryl Hartley
and Ricardo Viviani, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Earlier
documentation associates the work with a Brazilian outdoor project and
with computer-mediated organisation of movement sequences. The
chronology of its original creation should be established through
comparison of the surviving interview, programme and other archival
sources.
Pavões:
The programme describes the work as a work in progress, with music by
Heitor Villa-Lobos, costumes by Mark Bridges and Fernanda Meyer as
performer. The work is part of the Brazilian cultural and Carnival-related
material that appears elsewhere in Viviani’s archive. Mark Bridges’
recollection concerning the exceptionally large rear section of
Fernanda Meyer’s costume — and his having to carry or walk with it
through Manhattan from Midtown toward the venue — should be preserved
in the individual work record as an identified personal recollection,
rather than as independently verified production fact.
Girl:
The programme identifies Girl as a solo choreographed by
Ricardo Viviani and danced by Cheryl Hartley, with music by Tom Jobim.
Its inclusion in the 1988 concert links the work to Viviani’s ongoing
collaboration with Hartley.
Rubber Gloves:
The programme identifies Rubber Gloves as a 1988 premiere,
performed as a duet by Cheryl Hartley and Ricardo Viviani, with music
by Heitor Villa-Lobos and costumes by Mark Bridges. It also records
that the solo in the work was dedicated to Viviani’s father. This work
was omitted from the earlier reconstruction of the concert and should
now be treated as part of the documented 1988 programme.
Personal Reflection
[Add Ricardo Viviani’s retrospective reflection on the 1988 concert,
the decision to present these works together, the experience of working
with Cheryl Hartley and Mark Bridges, and the relationship between the
Brazilian origins of the work and its New York presentation.]
Archival Material
Eight-page Colchões Ortopédicos programme / press dossier,
October 1988; concert postcard; press clippings; contemporary listings;
documentation for Girl; documentation for Serious Talk;
documentation for Blue Danube; documentation for Pavões;
documentation for Colchões Ortopédicos; documentation for
Rubber Gloves; video documentation where available; photographs;
and related archival correspondence and production material.
Apresentação de Gilberto Di Pierro
prefácio de Jacob Klintowitz
Massao Ono Editor 1987
Edição de 700 exemplares
Paperback circa 40 pages Shop
Luzes, ação, click. Arte e objetiva, arte-objetiva, click. Rostos, corpos, click. Sombras, magias, click. Pés, peitos, coxas. Click, click, click. Olhos sensuais, bocas sensuais, corpos sensuais. Danças, click, sons, click, sexo, click. Há uma mão que passa no corpo que olha para os olhos que espiam outras mãos passando em outros corpos que olham para outros olhos. Pele, pele, pele. Suor, perfume, magia. Esta é uma viagem fotográfica de Norma Guimarães pelos corpos e pelos pêlos de bailarinos, atrizes. Este é um documento fotográfico de um espetáculo onde os corpos encontraram as artes e, pelo vão da porta, encontraram a máquina fotográfica de Norma Guimarães. Gilberto Di Pierro (Giba Um)
Com: Inês Aguiar, Ricardo Viviani, Manuela Assunção, Flávio Cardoso, Vera Mancini, Fernando Wellington, Miriam Lins e Graça Bermam
… Darkly handsome, Viviani has the masculine power of the young Robert Mitchum, but he’s hot, not cool. Joining Hartley for Serious Talk, he’s slightly menacing, controlled, agressive — but unhurried. A ’40s film noir, Mickey Spillane kind of guy — but he doesn’t lay a hand on her. … Viviani’s in formal pants, black suspenders, a sleeveless undershirt. He slowly raises his arms, folds them across his chest. He points his index finger, then with the other hand pushes softly in the opposite direction with measured force. Repeating gestures, speeding them up, adding more, he produces a steady flow of contradictory impulses, while playing off the waltz rhythms. He opens his hands with a kind of helpless strength, then draws them in to his chest and cringes. The accelerating repetition of impassioned gestures gradually builds as unbearable pressure of feeling in him.
The New York Times by Jennifer Dunning
Blue Danube – New York City
… Mr. Viviani, a relatively new choreographer, took simple themes and dealt with them with admirable simplicity … The quality of movement is most subtle and interesting in “Blue Danube,” set to the Strauss waltz, its message is mystifying. Mr. Viviani and Cheryl Hartley were personable dancers.
Computer-art image associated with Danças Novas e uma Usada, documenting the technological and visual language developed around the production.
Type: Production · Dance / Computer Art / Performance Date: 11 December 1984; related documentation and presentations extend into 1984 Context: Experimental dance integrating choreography, computer technology, generated visual material and live performance Location: Circo Escola Picadeiro, Parque do Povo, São Paulo; additional presentation at Praça Benedito Calixto Organisation: Ricardo Viviani / independent production Role: Choreographer · Performer · Researcher · Producer Participants: Ricardo Viviani · Renata Melo Technology: Microdigital computer equipment Status: Historical production record reconstructed from surviving primary documentation, photographs and archival recollection
Record / Description
Danças Novas e uma Usada belongs to an early period in Ricardo Viviani’s work in which choreography, performance, experimental composition and computer technology began to intersect.
The surviving press release identifies the presentation as taking place on 11 December 1984 at 20:30 at the Circo Escola Picadeiro, Parque do Povo, São Paulo, near the Jardim bridge. The document presents Viviani as a dancer and choreographer and describes an artistic practice concerned with developing new forms of dance through experimentation and research.
The programme included a series of solos and a duet performed by Ricardo Viviani and Renata Melo. The release specifically identifies Uma Usada as the solo Danúbio Azul, which had premiered in 1982, while Relações Interpessoais is described as a work in which dance and computer technology interact.
The computer was not simply an object placed onstage. According to the surviving release, Relações Interpessoais used computers and monitors as part of the logic of the performance: data generated through the system determined aspects of the relationship and sequence of the dancers’ actions.
Ricardo Viviani and Renata Melo performing outdoors at Praça Benedito Calixto, São Paulo. The photograph provides surviving visual evidence of an additional presentation of the work.
The Work / Creation
Danças Novas e uma Usada should be understood as a production framework rather than simply the title of a single choreography. The surviving document presents a group of works that brought together existing repertoire and new experiments.
The most technologically distinctive component was Relações Interpessoais, described in the release as an integration of computer and dance. A computer-generated or computer-determined system became part of the choreographic structure, with data used to determine the relationship between the dancers and the sequence of events.
The release also identifies Uma Usada as Danúbio Azul, a solo that had premiered in 1982. This establishes an important relationship between the earlier solo repertoire and the new computer-oriented research.
Activity / Event
Documented presentation: 11 December 1984, 20:30, Circo Escola Picadeiro, Parque do Povo, São Paulo.
The surviving press release gives the venue and location as the Circo Escola Picadeiro at Parque do Povo, near the Jardim bridge. This supersedes the previously uncertain venue information in the archive.
An additional presentation is recalled at Praça Benedito Calixto. The surviving performance photograph provides visual evidence of Ricardo Viviani and Renata Melo performing outdoors before an audience. The photographic record is particularly significant because Viviani’s studio address, printed on the surviving release, was also at Praça Benedito Calixto.
Production
The production combined choreography, performance, computer equipment, sound, text and visual experimentation.
The surviving release states that the computer equipment was provided by Microdigital Computadores. The release describes a stage environment containing four monitors and three computers. The equipment therefore formed part of the performance environment and choreographic conception rather than functioning solely as technical support.
The surviving computer equipment is still held in Ricardo Viviani’s archive. These machines constitute important physical evidence of the technological environment in which this work was developed and should eventually be documented as archival objects, including their models, configuration and surviving software or media where identifiable.
Intellectual Production
The production represents an early form of artistic research in which computer technology was treated as a compositional partner in dance rather than simply as a recording or administrative tool.
The surviving release describes the computer system as contributing data that determined relationships and sequences within the performance. This provides direct evidence of an attempt to translate computational processes into choreographic structure.
The work is therefore relevant to the history of Viviani’s research into new dance forms, as well as to the broader intersection of dance, experimental performance and early personal-computer culture in Brazil.
Primary Source / Documentation
The principal primary source for this record is a surviving thermal-paper press release / artistic information document associated with the production. Its typography, 8-bit graphics and physical format are themselves part of the production history.
Surviving thermal-paper press release / artistic information document for Danças Novas e uma Usada. The document records the Circo Escola Picadeiro presentation, describes the computer-and-dance component, identifies Microdigital Computadores as the provider of the computer equipment, and preserves the 8-bit graphic language associated with the production.
The document is particularly important because it preserves information that would otherwise be difficult to reconstruct: the documented venue, date and time; the relationship between the existing and new works; the participation of Renata Melo; the use of computers and monitors within the performance; the musical and textual credits; the equipment provider; and Ricardo Viviani’s studio address.
The 8-bit graphics are not treated here as incidental decoration. They form part of the surviving visual language of the project and provide evidence of the connection between the graphic, technological and choreographic aspects of the work.
Research
This record contributes to a larger chronology of Ricardo Viviani’s experimentation during the early and mid-1980s.
The surviving documentation establishes a connection between the 1982 Danúbio Azul, the 1984 presentation documented by the press release, and subsequent work involving Relações Interpessoais / Serious Talk and Colchões Ortopédicos.
The relationship between the different dates and presentations should remain historically explicit rather than being reduced to a single creation date. The archive currently contains evidence from 1983 and 1984, including the press release, performance photography and later documentation. Further examination of surviving papers, computers, photographs and other materials may refine the chronology.
Relationship
Relações Interpessoais is particularly important to the genealogy of this production. The surviving documentation establishes the Portuguese title, while later documentation identifies Serious Talk as its English title. These should be treated as two titles for the same work, not as separate choreographies.
The computer-based research documented here also connects directly with the later development and presentation of Viviani’s work in New York and with the technological and graphic experiments visible in the surviving 1984 documentation.
This production should therefore be read as part of a continuing line of investigation rather than as an isolated event.
Place / Context
The documented venue was Circo Escola Picadeiro, Parque do Povo, São Paulo.
The archive also contains photographic evidence of an outdoor presentation at Praça Benedito Calixto. This location has particular significance because Ricardo Viviani’s studio was situated at Praça Benedito Calixto 162, the address printed on the surviving release. The studio was not simply an administrative address: it was a place where Viviani lived, rehearsed and gave dance classes.
The proximity between studio, rehearsal activity, teaching and public presentation forms an important part of the working context of this period. The Praça therefore represents both a geographic and an artistic context for the production.
Personal Reflection
This work belongs to a period when the computer itself became part of the artistic investigation. The surviving machines, the early computer graphics and the performance documentation preserve a moment when technology was being explored directly through dance and choreography.
Archival Material
Surviving thermal-paper press release / artistic information document
8-bit graphics incorporated into the surviving printed document
Surviving computers used in the production
Performance photograph of Ricardo Viviani and Renata Melo at Praça Benedito Calixto
Production-related photographs and computer-art images
Printed studio address and contact information contained in the original release
Type: Musical Theater · Dance Work / Piece Date: 1983–1989 Time-span: 1983–1989 — Ricardo Viviani’s documented and recalled period of participation Context: Musical theater / revue; Brazilian productions, touring engagements and Broadway revival Location: São Paulo, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Brazil; Oslo, Norway; Israel; New York, USA Role: Performer · Dancer · Singer Status: Historical Record — incomplete / ongoing archival reconstruction
Oh! Calcutta! This page documents Ricardo Viviani’s participation in the musical theater work and revue Oh! Calcutta! during the 1980s, including engagements in Brazil, an Oslo tour, a recalled tour in Israel, and his participation as a guest on Broadway in New York. The record is being reconstructed from surviving archival material and personal recollection and is not yet complete.
The Work / Creation
Oh! Calcutta! is a theatrical revue created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan and produced by Hillard Elkins. It premiered Off-Broadway in New York in 1969 and subsequently had productions in London and elsewhere. The work combines sketches, music, dance and performance and became known for its treatment of sexuality and extensive nudity. The Broadway revival opened at the Edison Theatre on 24 September 1976 and closed on 6 August 1989 after 5,959 performances.
For this archive, Oh! Calcutta! is treated as the Work / Creation, while Ricardo Viviani’s individual engagements are understood as particular productions, tours or performance contexts of that work. The present page therefore functions as a work-level record that can later be connected to separate production and performance records as further documentation is identified.
Production
Ricardo Viviani participated in several different contexts of Oh! Calcutta! during the 1980s. The currently identified chronology includes São Paulo in 1983, Rio de Janeiro in 1984, a Brazilian tour, an Oslo engagement in 1986, a recalled three-month tour in Israel believed to date from approximately 1986, and guest participation in the Broadway revival in New York from 1986 to 1989.
The individual productions and touring engagements have not yet been fully separated into independent archive records. Where exact venues, dates, companies or production personnel remain undocumented, no additional details are asserted here.
Performance History
São Paulo — 1983
Ricardo Viviani participated in Oh! Calcutta! in São Paulo in 1983. Existing archive material identifies his participation as singer / dancer. The exact venue, performance dates and complete production information remain to be reconstructed.
Rio de Janeiro — 1984
Ricardo Viviani participated in the Rio de Janeiro production in 1984. Further documentation is required to establish the complete production record.
Brazilian Tour
Ricardo Viviani recalls participating in a Brazilian touring context of Oh! Calcutta!. The present archive does not yet establish a complete itinerary. Individual cities, venues and dates should be added when supported by documentation or clearly identified recollection.
Oslo, Norway — 1986
Ricardo Viviani recalls participating in an Oh! Calcutta! tour in Oslo in 1986. This is presently recorded as a personal recollection requiring documentary confirmation. No specific venue or performance dates are asserted at this stage.
Israel — approximately 1986
Ricardo Viviani recalls participating in a tour in Israel lasting approximately three months, believed to have taken place in 1986. The year and duration remain provisional pending documentary confirmation.
Broadway, New York — 1986–1989
Ricardo Viviani participated as a guest in the Broadway revival of Oh! Calcutta! at the Edison Theatre during the final years of its run. Surviving programme material dated 13 November 1988 identifies Ricardo Viviani as a member of the company and records multiple performance assignments.
The surviving programme documents Ricardo Viviani in different cast configurations and performance assignments including Attendant, One on One with Cheryl Hartley, Man #2 in Four in Hand, Dance for George, Interviewer, Nurse, One on One with Amy Fortgang and Love Lust Poem. The presence of different configurations is relevant to understanding that his participation was not necessarily limited to one fixed assignment.
A surviving Edison Theatre programme dated 13 November 1988 documents Ricardo Viviani as part of the Broadway company and records multiple performance assignments. A Daily News clipping dated 8 August 1989 documents the closing of the Edison Theatre production after 5,959 performances. Additional photographs and press material remain in the archive and require further identification and contextualisation.
Reception / Critical Documentation
The broader critical history of Oh! Calcutta! includes substantial contemporary debate concerning its theatrical form, sexual subject matter and use of nudity. The work received sharply differing critical responses from the beginning, while its Broadway revival ultimately achieved an exceptionally long commercial run.
The surviving 8 August 1989 Daily News clipping documents the closing of the Edison Theatre production and its 5,959-performance run. It is preserved as contemporary press documentation rather than as an assessment by Ricardo Viviani.
Source:Daily News, 8 August 1989, archival clipping preserved in the Ricardo Viviani archive.
Personal Reflection
Ricardo Viviani recalls participating in Oh! Calcutta! in Brazil, on international tours including Oslo and Israel, and later as a guest on Broadway. The Oslo participation is presently recalled as taking place in 1986. The Israel tour is recalled as lasting approximately three months and is believed to have taken place in approximately 1986.
These recollections are retained as personal testimony and are intentionally distinguished from information established through surviving programmes, press material or other independent documentation. Further archival research may confirm, refine or correct the chronology.
Publication
Corpos, a photographic publication by Norma Guimarães, was published by Massao Ono Editor in 1987. The publication includes a photographic essay by Norma Guimarães, presentation by Gilberto Di Pierro and preface by Jacob Klintowitz.
Ricardo Viviani recalls that the photographic session was made after a performance of Oh! Calcutta!, in and around the sets. Corpos is therefore treated as related publication and documentation, not as part of the work itself.
