ASALTODIARIO
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Add to those influences the fact that much of Mexican life happens in the plaza and the street (because of the friendly weather conditions) and the result is an environment in which art, religion, and everyday life are effectively integrated–so much so that the “creative” life and “regular” life (whatever that is) are often indistinguishable. This environment has nurtured street performers, dancers, and performance art in general, and in particular a young dance/performance troupe (formed in 1987) known as Asaltodiario, which appeared at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum as part of “Del Corazon: Mexican Performing Arts Festival 1994.”
The six members of Asaltodiario (“daily assault”) mix street dance, acrobatics, and guerrilla theater, and in their native Mexico City perform mainly in the plazas, parks, and other public areas. Here they displayed plenty of verve and strength, but their theatrics and posturing didn’t quite fulfill the promise of street performance. Being indoors and onstage, they were unable to jump on and off poles or walls without literally bringing down the house. Asaltodiario clearly had to accommodate their athletic choreography to the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum auditorium. But small choreographic bits that might otherwise have been lost worked well in the enclosed environment.
Any illustration of evil should be not merely the illustration of suffering, sadism, or cruelty but also of senselessness, ignorance, and stupidity; juxtaposed with these should be the fragility and beauty of all life. Addressing the nature of evil means meditating on many things metaphysical, sociological, theological, and artistic. Paraphrase of Passion attempts to show the duality of life by including a few instances of kindness and compassion, but this still seems a young work by a young, idealistic company. The piece is ambitious if nothing else, but one wishes that Asaltodiario had chosen a subject with more autobiographical punch and less of the “man’s inhumanity to man” school of performance art.
