Worthing dance show celebrates friendship

Years of friendship are the skeleton of the show, says Naomi Silman.
PupikPupik
Pupik

The meat on the skeleton is the fact that the two women are also foreigners. The result is Pupik, a two-woman dance show, created and performed by Naomi, from company Lume Teatro, Brazil and by her friend of long standing, Yael Karavan, of Karavan Ensemble, UK.

Pupik – which means navel in Hebrew – premiered in Brazil in 2015. Now the show is in the UK in a new English adaptation supported by Arts Council England which comes to the Pavilion Theatre, Worthing on July 24-25.

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“The message of the piece, the outcome of the piece is to show the human connection that we make through friendship and that when friendship connects two people together, it does not matter how great the distances are that separate them,” Naomi said. “It doesn’t matter how big the distance. You can bridge that gap through friendship – and we can share that no matter how different we are. We hope that the show ends on a really optimistic note.”

Naomi and Yael met 21 years ago in London at the International School of Physical Theatre. Naomi, who is British, met and married a Brazilian and has lived for years in Brazil. The show celebrates her friendship with Yael.

Naomi has been living in Worthing with her family since August of last year: “We came straight from São Paulo to Worthing where my mother lives. My mother actually spent a large part of her life in France until she was about 70 and then she wanted to come back to the UK and chose Worthing. We had no connection with this part of the world, but she wanted to live near the sea, and she liked the idea of Sussex with the Downs nearby and Brighton nearby and Chichester nearby.

“Our year has been fantastic. I think we have benefited hugely for many reasons. I can’t call it a sabbatical because we have been working quite a lot, but we have been working less than we would have been in Brazil where we run a company and have a lot more responsibilities and where we have a large repertoire of shows. There is a lot more work there on a daily basis. But here we have a connection with family and also another experience for me coming back to England after 21 years. I feel more Brazilian than I am British, but it has been lovely to reconnect with my roots in a way. Here everything is unbelievably organised and so safe.There are all these lovely places to go and to walk. And you don’t have to worry about things as you do in Brazil, about where you walk and how you walk. You get used to living over there slightly more preoccupied about safety, obviously with the children. But it is also such a beautiful part of the country here. We have seen lots of good shows and lots of places to take the children (two daughters aged 11 and eight).

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“We are going back in December. Once we get back, we will immerse ourselves in Brazil again and we have got new projects to work on. I have moved around a lot in my life, so I think the adaptation is much less. Once we get back, I will put on my Brazilian uniform again or my Brazilian skin. But the weather! That’s the only thing I haven’t loved about being back, the long dark winter!”

Tickets on 01903 206206 and online at worthingtheatres.co.uk.

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