The word ‘treta’ is Brazilian slang from the streets meaning ‘something that went wrong’, or a kind of unexpected trouble or conflict. tReta is a creation by the Original Bomber Crew, from the city of Teresina in Brazil, that uses the elements of hip-hop, from battle to breakdance, to rewrite history in a head-on confrontation with the colonizers’ forces.
It’s a conflict, an explosion, it’s a premeditated act to involve the other, where the audience takes a chance while posing for their selfie of the day. It’s a witnessing of the violence against minoritized bodies in Brazil (only there?). The movements of this dance are the expression of molecules of what actually happens, the everyday, physical reality. The “treta” in geopolitics, in neighborhoods, in breaking battles. The crew’s own fight, in which dance is a way of positioning themselves in the world.
In a performance as radical as it is blunt, a group of young dancers makes contact with the audience that has been plunged into darkness. Their heads hidden inside their t-shirts or bare-chested, moving around on skateboards, they create an atmosphere that evokes the urgency and hostility of urban life in Brazil, to whci they are exposed on a daily basis. Ranging between collisions, racing and precise movements, their gestures reflect the complexity of the metropolis and the chaos of the human relationships that are formed there. Often taken as disposable, in this performance their bodies become a critique of dysfunctional societies and invoke ways of co-existence that allow original communities to remain.
