'MUHE FRIDA' premiere during AIS/SALON, a performance by dancer Alydia Wever

The preparations for the dance theatre performance ‘Muhe Frida’ of Alydia Wever are well underway. After two years of preparation and a film, everything is coming together for the premiere on November 2nd 2011.  

By Ariën Rasmijn  

(this article was originally published in newspaper AMIGOE, 13-10-2011)

Already during her study in New York, Alydia Wever fell under the spell of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. “I saw the film about her life and cried from beginning to end. At the time, I saw the film together with my mentor and even then I thought it would be beautiful to make a dance performance about her life.” Years later – two years to be exact – she returns to the project. “Frida was someone who had been through a lot and suffered much pain, both physically and emotionally. I recognized myself not only in that pain but also in her willfulness, will and progressive character. I thought about doing this project.” That’s how ‘Muhe Frida’ came about, a multidisciplinary project seeking interfaces between the liberated painter and the Aruban female. “In first instance, I wanted to dedicate this to women, but I found out that everyone has interfaces with her life. Frida was so full of live and battle. Although one of her legs was shorter, she loved to dance. I think if she had wanted to, she could just as well have become a famous dancer.”

For the performance, Wever invited two pupils from all four dancing schools on the island to join in. “I want to promote cooperation and unity between the schools and the dancers on Aruba. After all, we are all together here and the aim is to make something beautiful together.” Wever also invited several dancers from abroad, for instance, the Dutch Anne-Fay Kops – who performed earlier in the diner show of Zissles – and the Canadian Geneva Jenkins. “They arrived one and a half week ago and are now working hard on their parts.” Furthermore, Michael Lampe, known from Datapanik and Fellow, will arrange original compositions and six artists are associated with the performance. Together with Alydia Wever, Osaira Muyala, Alida Martinez, Glenda Heyliger, Nadine Salas, Belinda de Veer and Irene Peterson will give a performance of seven scenes based on seven paintings from Frida Kahlo, with devised archetypes from the Mexican artist. These archetypes – varying from the Saint Frida, the Macho Frida and the Tormented Frida up to the Erotic Frida – were invented at the time by the Curaçao producer Felix de Rooij for the short film ‘Muhe Frida’, as shown at the Aruba International Film Festival. De Rooij is no longer involved with the dance theatre performance. “Eventually, we couldn’t work things out together”, says Wever. This resulted in two projects with the same name and the use of seven archetypes of Frida Kahlo. However, the dance theatre project is entirely different. “As regards contents, the emphasis is on the chosen seven paintings and as regards form the emphasis is on the dance theatre.” The film itself will be given a separate place during the evening of the performance. Works of 21 artists will be shown in the exposition room of Cas di Cultura. The exposition, led by Ryan Oduber, will also include Salon/, the Dutch part of the fashion event Aruba In Style that is to start on November 3rd.

The premiere of ‘Muhe Frida’ will be on November 2nd, the Mexican holiday Dia de Los Muertos. Tickets for the evening will cost 50 florins. There are also several performances for schools and a second performance on November 5th. Tickets for this performance will soon be available and cost 25 florins.