“Demise of a vertical figure” arose as Joao’s response and commentary on the phenomenon of post-truth, a worldwide cultural movement of our current times, originated from the rise of far-right ideologies, fake news and conspiracy theories. Understood as when the concepts of “fact” and “opinion” are blurred together and lose their distinction, Joao understood the emergence of post-truth as an evidence of the loss of clarity in communication: there’s no more reference point to a fact, but instead a personal truth of choice. 

Triggered especially by the political situation in Brazil from 2016 on, and its impacts on the stability of communities and families, Joao started a movement research on the loss of verticality and the motion of demise as a choreographic representation to the demise of clarity.

To do so, he chose the soundscape of Brazilian funk music, a rhythm he grew up dancing to and is demonised by the extremist movements that perpetrate post-truth. He makes use of the typical verbs present in the lyrics of the songs in a playful way, altering their meaning through movement, as an allusion to the practice of post-truth in communication.

From this extensive research, which originated during his Master studies in Choreography around 2018 into 2023, “Demise of a vertical figure” became a project comprising of (so far) four stage pieces and one video work.