Mafalda Mendonça

“A Drop of Water in the World” is an original creation of K2 Companhia de Dança, the most recent formation of young dancers from Ginasiano Escola de Dança. Nuno Preto's original text intends to convey a message of citizenship to children, about the reality and dystopia of a world without water.

The design of the scenography had as its fundamental principle the neutrality and flexibility of the objects. The scenic devices are parallelepiped modules to which the dancers' moving bodies are added, enhancing each other.

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This principle is strongly supported by the conception, defended by Adolphe Appia, of an integral work of art, in which the human body, on stage, is complemented by the three-dimensionality of the scenic space, by light as a modeling element and generator of forms, by movement and for attention to the relationship between audience and action.

These mobile objects, which are associated in various ways throughout the performance, contextualize the scenes. All creation processes were developed in parallel, these objects serving to stimulate the choreography and, simultaneously, being progressively adapted to the narrative. The movements of these devices were also choreographed, as if they were three performers.

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There was a great concern regarding materialization in order to ensure stability, ease of handling and an adaptation to the aesthetic line transversal to the entire show.

As the fundamental premise of the show is the awareness of the importance of water in the world and evidence of the direct consequences of its scarcity, in addition to the mobile devices mentioned above, there is a real dry tree on the scene, which progressively loses its leaves. This element works as a metaphor but, fundamentally, as a concrete reference with which the children who watch the performance relate in a more immediate way.