Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker, Brazil

Touring Germany in April 2025

Dog Without Feathers

For her dance production "Dog Without Feathers" - originally titled "Cão Sem Plumas" - Deborah Colker was inspired by the poem of the same name by poet and diplomat Joao Cabral. It describes the nature and landscape of the Capibaride River - the arid as well as the muddy or water-rich areas.

The dancers' earthy costumes merge with the impressive film sequences, which are played larger than life behind the dancers. People disappear into nature, cracks and patterns are absorbed, the impressive black and white images of the river landscapes merge with the earthy, muddy costumes.

The tendency towards beauty and the cult of the body - here, Deborah Colker brings it to the stage in rich contrast.

This is the first production in which Deborah Colker has dealt with this specifically Brazilian theme - the destruction of nature and the original beauty of the Brazilian wilderness

After the premiere in Recife, this production toured worldwide and won one of the most important dance prizes, the Prix Benois de la Dance in Moscow for the choreography.

Deborah Colker Dance Company

The "Deborah Colker Dance Company" was founded in 1994. With over thirteen shows in its repertoire, the company is one of the most honoured and renowned in Brazil and worldwide.

It received the Prix Benois de la Danse in Moscow in 2018, the most important award in this category.

In 2001, she also received the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award, presented by the Society of London Theatre.

In 2009, Deborah Colker was invited by "Cirque du Soleil" to create the new show "Ovo". She was the first woman to stage a show for the Cirque.

To mark the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany, she created the football choreography Maracanã,[1] which includes typical scenes such as fouls and drop-backs.

In 2016, she staged the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, an event that was watched by around 2 billion people worldwide.

Since then, her productions have already had more than 1,600 performances in around 65 cities and 32 countries, reaching an audience of over 3 million people.

It's no coincidence that Deborah Colker's bustle and desire for diversity have become a trademark of her work.

The daughter of a conductor, she studied psychology and was a professional volleyball player for some time. She took piano lessons for twelve years and is also considered an excellent concert pianist.

She began her professional dance training at the age of 17: classical, jazz and step. From 1980 onwards, she danced, choreographed and taught for eight years with "Grupo Coringa", which shaped the dance scene in Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s. In 1984, she became a ballet master and worked for ten years with the most important directors and actors in Brazil in over 30 pieces, including developing the movement direction for Werner Herzog's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", thus beginning her career as a "movement director", a generic term that she introduced to the Brazilian dance language. Colker has also choreographed music shows and video clips, including the Front Commission of the Mangueira School of Samba.