Guintche (Live Version)

While leaving jazz concert, Marlene Monteiro Freitas drew a little character, naming it “guintche”. In her native language, Portuguese-based Cape Verdean Creole, this word refers to a bird, a female sex worker or an attitude, – switching randomly between two unconnected subjects. In 2010, the choreographer brought this hybrid image, a product of her imagination, to life in a solo. With gurning face, bulging eyes, tongue out, swaying goofily, dressed as a wrestler or a begloved dancer, she electrified the stage. This uppercut of a piece made her famous. Now revived and augmented by the live energy of two completely unrestrained drummers, Henri “Cookie” Lesguillier and Simon Lacouture, Guintche (Live Version) condenses the world of an artist who has made the grotesque, the carnivalesque and the fusion of opposites her hallmark.