Notes by Karishma about the dance performance PréPostmundo seen in May 2022 in Sociedade Guilherme Cossoul in Lisbon

I was on edge a bit those days - tense. And not working. Action was missing and then these hands alive and they made me more stressed, in the beginning, like they were fidgety and obsessive. Like the thing I was trying to get away from was in the world and everyone was feeling it. And what was Bernardo writing ? And how can he be so calm, like himself in the performance too. Then the gestures became familiar. I was reminded of Kathakali. Anyway this was story telling too. When Bernardo joined I felt I the other dancer has defined language in her gestures. I Bernardo was complimentary and soft, like him. Perhaps Coline has studied bharatnatyam a bit.

Even using her eyes to create emotion and to point or draw attention. I loved the body shape of this. It happened suddenly just before Bernardo joined in. Suddenly the whole body was there and I couldn’t

anymore. The incessant hands took a backseat. When the communication began it was like us humans. Tentative first communication. Then laughter at incomprehensibility, or at the self, or the situation of two trying to say something. But the laughter broke the struggle and something was created by the hands freely after. Something has been created now. My artist side said. I wonder how they will end this though, my mind continued. A second later you did. Ah ! We were left with a dream and a gift : open ended and thank you. Subtle with so much in it that was very directly comprehended. It was also interesting how Bernardo switched from a role of surveyor/marker/ professor/ philosopher/anthropologist of this strange life form before him, to participant to create something.

I didn’t understand the words (text) Coline, and though Bernardo sent it to me right after, I will have to sit with it carefully to understand the writing and then the portuguese. Will do that in Goa. 1 1 m going to be in Goa for a month. But I comprehend the remnants of kisses and the smudges on the paper that link directly to my experience of the work.

It’s a nice visual of what was also left with me. Something sweetly touched.