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Ismael Ivo
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(Venice, Italy) On the evening of July 22nd, here in Venice we celebrated the life of Ismael Ivo, the dynamic and much loved Brazilian dancer, choreographer and director of Biennale Danza who died of Covid-19 on April 8, 2021 at the age of 66.
The Body Is a Document of Today: A Tribute to Ismael Ivo was inaugurated in the Portego of Ca'Giustinian, La Biennale di Venezia's headquarters on the Grand Canal. The tribute reminded us of the power Ismael conveyed during the years that he was here in Venice, a force that still reverberates today.
The exhibition was curated by Wayne McGregor, the current Director of the Dance, who raided La Biennale's vast Historical Archive (ASAC) to organize a touching memorial for Ismael Ivo. According to McGregor, the tribute is:
A celebration of the adventuresome spirit and poetic humanity of Ismael Ivo in documents, photos and video from the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts of La Biennale di Venezia.
"Adventuresome spirit" and "poetic humanity" describes Ismael Ivo beautifully, and I am grateful to Wayne McGregor for putting together this memorial, and to La Biennale for inviting me to the opening. It was the closure I needed to accept that this wonderful spirit who impacted my life is no longer here on the planet.
Ismael Ivo was the director of the Biennale Dance sector from 2005 through 2012. But he first captured my heart several years earlier when I saw him perform Mapplethorpe at the Dance Biennale in 2002, a dance monument he created in memory of Robert Mapplethorpe -- a performance which is still burned into my memory nearly two decades later.
The show began with a completely naked, astonishingly beautiful man on stage. He had luminescent ebony skin and a perfect body and was fearless, physically breaking down a wall accompanied by the music of Steve Reich while wading through calla lilies.
Ismael's performance created a sensation throughout Venice and the dance world, and an unscheduled repeat performance was quickly planned for the next night. I still have my agenda from 2002, and I have it written on both May 7 and 8, which makes me wonder if I saw it twice.
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Ismael Ivo in Mapplethorpe
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The Inspiration for Mapplethorpe, the Dance
According to a 2007 article in La Repubblica, and an article in gay.it entitled I Neri di Mapplethorpe (The Blacks of Mapplethorpe) in 1984 Ismael, then 29, had accompanied Gudrun Stockinger, an Austrian photojournalist, to an interview at Mapplethorpe's home studio in Manhattan. She wanted to photograph Mapplethorpe, and he said he would only agree if Ismael would agree to be photographed by him. (Ismael had been transported to New York by his talent after being plucked off the stage in Brazil by Alvin Ailey, who had seen him perform while there on vacation.) It was agreed, and that is how a topless Ismael Ivo came to be photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe, an encounter that jolted Ismael to such an extent that he later would create a performance based on the experience.
In 1989, Ismael was in Germany (again transported by his talent) and read that Mapplethorpe was dying of AIDS. He called Mapplethorpe and told him that the day he was photographed was one of the most beautiful and intense days of his life, and he wanted to thank him for his kindness. Mapplethorpe replied that "you don't know how important it is to hear these words. The only thing I regret is that I will no longer be able to photograph you because for me you are the ideal model." Two weeks later, Mapplethorpe was dead.
Then, nearly two decades later, in the Italian interview with Il Repubblica, Ismael explained that he replicated the magical exchange of energy of that photography session when he conjured up Mapplethorpe -- the silence in the room, the way Robert Mapplethorpe choreographed Ismael's pose as he sat on a chair, his intense gaze:
"For me the show is an aesthetic dialogue with Mapplethorpe, a genius who had an obsession
with the body. Mapplethorpe broke a taboo in American society by showing the black man's body
and his personal fantasies about it in the sunlight. He broke an erotic and racial taboo."
"The show begins with my naked body breaking a wall, the prison of taboos. I think that only a
genius like him could break a taboo that went back to the colonial era. He succeeded because
he was good and because he translated the erotic model into luminous, perfect images."
"...Mapplethorpe not only stripped my body but also my soul. He forced me to open my interior...
he was like an anthropologist. He studied that body for a deeper unveiling."
Like handing off the baton in a relay race, Ismael Ivo took Mapplethorpe's distinct images of the black male body, infused them with his own passions and transformed them into dance. He then passed this mystical conversation without words onto us, the audience. The performance went down in history.
By then, Ismael had co-founded the Vienna International Dance Festival and was head choreographer at the German National Theater in Weimar. He became Director of La Biennale Dance in 2005, and then created L'Arsenale della Danza,
a company of young dancers from all over the world, who arrived in
Venice for master classes with selected mentors, followed by live
performances. The dances of the students were so popular that it became
almost impossible to get a seat.
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| Roberto Cicutto, President of La Biennale & Wayne McGregor, Director of Dance |
The Ebony God
Dancer/choreographer Ismael Ivo: The ebony god that Brazil didn’t know and the world revered dies from complications of Covid-19
I thought that "ebony god" described Ismael Ivo even better than his "adventuresome spirit" and "poetic humanity." (Can you imagine knowing such a man!?) About midway through the article, which seems to have more than one author, Kauê Vieira writes:
Ismael Ivo had the color of the night. A black man, with muscles defined
by the work of a career of over 30 years abroad, Ivo was the perfect
definition of an Deus do Ébano (Ebony God), as Ilê Aiyê sang so well.
The article is a fascinating recap of Ismael's life told from the perspective of his own country, Brazil, to which he had returned. He took over the direction of the Balé da Cidade de São
Paulo in 2017 and was the vice president of the State Council of
Culture of the Government of São Paulo when he died.
According to the article, São Paulo Governor João Dória announced that he would create the SP
Escola de Dança Ismael Ivo (Ismael Ivo School of Dance), which “will
offer technical and artistic training, with a 100% focus on the
formation and training of professionals in choreography and
performance.”
May the memory and trajectory of Ismael Ivo serve to inspire Brazil
to understand that there is no evolutionary possibility without art. But
art that includes and fights against historical prejudices, such as
racism. The rest, dear readers, is a sham and has a commitment to
oppression.
“Culture is an element that transforms life,” Ismael Ivo.
To read more about the Ebony God go to Black Brazil Today.
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Tribute to Ismael Ivo on the Terrace of Ca' Giustinian, La Biennale Headquarters - Photo: Cat Bauer
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The Body Is a Document of Today: A Tribute to Ismael Ivo
Here in Venice, at the inauguration, Roberto Cicutto, the new President of La Biennale di Venezia said, "We are proud that the material gathered in this Exhibition today can
indeed make us feel the presence of Ismael Ivo, who recently passed
away, and brings his work to the attention of those who might choose to
embrace it and those who might wish to disseminate it."
The images and videos of the tribute were deeply moving, and I became teary-eyed remembering the precious moments I had shared with Ismael, a man filled with passion and compassion, strength and kindness. He
was a man who was as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside, and who
used his medium to challenge the world to its core and probe the depths of its
foundation.
Afterwards we all went up to the roof and continued the celebration on the terrace of Ca' Giustinian, a setting that has one of the most spectacular views in Venice. Surrounded by such magnificence, we could indeed feel the presence of Ismael Ivo radiating from the heavens.
Addio, caro Ismael. Rest with the angels.
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| Cat Bauer at Ismael Ivo Tribute - Ca' Giustinian Terrace |
Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
