PERFORMANCE ART REVIEW : Branfman Explores the Politics of Brazil

Perched on a ledge high above the audience in a skimpy Brazilian bikini, Suchi Branfman launched the first performance of her political theater work, “Estangeiro/Foreigner,” Thursday on the “Women’s Work” series at Highways in Santa Monica.

Her opening vignette--partially an account of a Southern lady’s vacation in the land of the bossa nova--contained kernels of key themes of the piece (racism, repression and blithe indifference to same). But it did not prepare for her knockout movement style.

A tensely electric performer, Branfman has the arresting capacity to move with lithe ease while channeling energy up into crisp arm and limb articulations. Whether in extended balances or in masterful parodies of the sensuous movements of the samba or the swagger of machismo, Branfman made points of stabbing clarity.

She intercut such movement episodes with stories about Brazil or layered her storytelling with fierce, strong gestures.

All is not well in that country. The national census classifies citizens according to degree of skin color although the “official” position, she says, is that there is no racism because “we are a mixed people.” Yet a trip to the fabled beach of Ipanema shows police driving off the dark-skinned poor so that the rich tourists can party.

(Ironically, the “indigenous” lambada turns out to be a dance created by French entrepreneurs, taught to a Brazilian couple and reimported to the country.)

Against newspaper headlines that trumpet the beheading of homosexuals, Branfman juxtaposes taped excerpts from the appointment diary of a person with AIDS.

Not all such juxtapositions seemed so clear, however. Although infused with strong moral purpose, Branfman seems to arbitrarily structure this segmented, but freely-flowing work, and individual sections can remain opaque.

The work will repeat at 8:30 tonight.