Puff
direction: Alice Ripoll
creation and performance: Hiltinho Fantástico
assistant direction: Alan Ferreira and Thais Peixoto
lighting design: Tomás Ribas
costume, scenography: Alice Ripoll and Thais Peixoto
original soundtrack: Alice Ripoll e Mimosa
tour manager: Joana D’Aguiar
production assistants: Isabela Peixoto and Thais Peixoto
duration: 40’
premiere: Festival Actoral, Marseille, 2025
coproduction: Rotterdam Theater
support: Festival Actoral and Câmbio
diffusion: Art Happens
Since the moment the dancer steps onto the stage, his body seems unable to contain itself: it is dragged, accelerated, to leap into the frantic movement. He oscillates between control and surrender. His feet beat at breakneck speed, evoking various dance styles, while his body at times seems to float and then suddenly collapse. Every breath, every pause, the rhythm of his body: everything becomes dance. At times ironic, at times almost elusive, almost hallucinatory. Like something that remains always beyond sight. Here, the body becomes a place of memory, imagination, transformation and intertwines.
From the moment he suddenly appeared before the audience like a trickster, and began dancing as if he were drunk, the atmosphere and space, instantly became his. His feet barely touched the floor, and he was always floating in the air. It was as if his body had been taken over by someone (a spirit, or a demon), and he couldn't stop dancing. Time - past, present and future - does not exist in his body, and he cannot stop jumping around. After that, it changes into a very elegant dance that seems to be a mix of various South American cultures. It was a dance that seemed to express the fragility of the human spirit, anger, sadness, joy, the joy of sexuality that transcends the male and female genders, animals, birds, fish, ghosts... All of these things seemed to be running through his body. For me, as an audience member, the afterimages of each moment of the dance remained in my eyes, and the layers of these afterimages overlapped to create a landscape that I had never seen before.
Lieko Shiga
Alice Ripoll is an artist from Rio de Janeiro, that has been working in contemporary dance for over twenty years as a choreographer, performer, and movement director for theater and film. She currently leads two companies in Brazil, whose repertoire includes different works. Her performances are presented at major theater stages and dance festivals in Brazil and abroad,
Hiltinho Fantástico is a dancer, performer, and teacher from Rio de Janeiro, recognized as one of the leading figures of “passinho” in Brazil. He gained national visibility after winning the Batalha do Passinho in 2013 and later joined the Dream Team do Passinho, helping to bring the style to wider audiences. In recent years, he has expanded his artistic research through a close collaboration with choreographer Alice Ripoll, bringing urban dance into the realm of contemporary performance and appearing in works presented in Brazil and abroad.
