Join us for “Zombaria Practices: exercises with the body and radical imagination.,” a special artist-led workshop with Rio de Janeiro-based actress, dancer, choreographer, and educator Vanessa Soares as part of the multi-sited exhibition Seeing through Stone on view at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences. During this dance-related workshop, Soares will guide participants through the concept of Zombaria, which she has developed through her practice as an educator in Brazil. 

Soares’ Zombaria (a Portuguese term that can be translated as “mockery”) are bodily practices that, through errors, laughter, mockery, and loss of control, envision dance as an exercise of disobedience: a practice that can generate cracks in the imaginary walls that enclose both educational institutions and bodies. Zombaria sustains a space for freedom and experimentation as dance becomes survival and a tool for restructuring one’s living, teaching, and learning experiences. 

During this workshop, participants will also learn about Vanessa Soares’ collaboration with O grupo inteiro and Lorran Dias, part of the work Liberdade Zero/Zero Freedom, featured at the Seeing through Stone exhibition at the IAS. Over three months, Soares worked with children who live in the Complexo de Favelas da Maré (Maré Favela Complex), in Rio de Janeiro, and study at the Centro de Estudos e Ações Solidárias da Maré (Center for Studies and Solidarity Actions of Maré, or CEASM). In a series of imaginative exercises, which included a fantastical trip to the moon, Soares brought the children into contact with contexts that inhabit their imaginations but are outside their immediate surroundings.

This event is open to the public but RSVP is required to guarantee your spot. RSVP here.

Located on the 3rd floor of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, CA.

Vanessa Soares is an actress, dancer, and educator who lives and works between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She holds a degree in Dance from (UFRJ Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). Soares has created her dance method, Zombaria, in which she explores possibilities of fugitivity and radical imagination through fiction and body experiments.