The cruelty of the heart

Shortly after returning from exile, Carla Lobos became friends with Enrique Lihn. She was a theater student and he was a much older poet. It was a deep friendship that lasted until Lihn's death in 1988. Now, Carla turns to butoh to pay tribute to her friend and to his poetry to renew her language in dance.

The cruelty of the heart, butoh melodrama, a work inspired by the poems of Enrique Lihn, is the long title of a work that, paradoxically, appeals to the simplicity of body and word. The choreographer, director and dancer herself selected texts from the books The Dark Piece and Diario de muerte, to be said on stage. "It is a new search. With my voice I want to go towards clarity in butoh, so that its tearfulness is understood more. It has always seemed that not much is understood, but now I think that with the word on stage it will begin to become clearer."

This work crosses butoh with theater and circus, to explore heartbreak, betrayal, loneliness and bohemianism. "Butoh probes deep existence, sees where the pain is, the demons. And that has everything to do with Enrique's poetry, which searches for the depths of the subterranean that inhabits the human mind." 

Director: Carla Lobos
Performers: Carla Lobos, Karola Lucavechi, Álvaro Pizarro, María Paz Durán and Raúl Salazar
Set and lighting design: Pedro Vilarnau
Costume design:Beatriz Zamora
Musical composition: Patricio Pacheco
Artistic production: Daniel Katz

Photo credit: Javier Rojas (photographer) and Claudia Puchi (graphic design)