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.
Primary archival document: Colchões Ortopédicos — programme and press documentation, October 1988.
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