Artist Spotlight

Nelly De Britoo

Nelly is of Portuguese origin and lived in France for many years. She's always been interested in working with textiles and does so as a hobby, creating beautiful decorative wall pieces with macramé.

This is the first time Nelly will try to engage her skills in using the macramé for theatre costume making. She's very excited about this new venture and looking forward to trying something new.

The story so far...

When I first proposed that, she tried to use her skills for costume making, Nelly was a little apprehensive, naturally.

We started looking at ideas and understanding how she can make the macramé work for movement in theatre. There's plenty to learn, and what's important is to start.

I absolutely love to inspire people to achieve their dreams and fill them with possibility, and, after Nelly explained the history of macramé and how it was so connected to the sea, it made me decide to use this fabric as it fits the context of my piece "3 Cores Negras". In addition, my grandfather worked at sea for months on end...I'm sure he had these skills and was using cords and knots too. I just love how that is speaking through the piece.

So...Nelly started her journey into costume making and this was the first result!

LEFT

The performer is interpreting the role of the "mulata" (see definition)

The dichotomy between the stereotype of the "tragic mulata" and the "empowered hips" in the piece "3 Cores Negras" reflects in this type of xaule in macramé that has plenty of movement and falls on the body in a very soft and sensual manner. She's in charge of how much/ little body she shows.

RIGHT

The performer is interpreting the role of "Negra", inspired by the poem of the same name by Victoria Santa Cruz.

For this we brought in the idea of the Orisha spirituality. The face is covered since the "ego" has not taken over yet, "Negra" is the ancestor, the first woman, the womb