The sea (of Vigo), which takes away and brings back the beloved, the friend, is what gives life and movement to *Sem Mim*. The ballet is set to the original soundtrack woven together by Carlos Núñez from Vigo and José Miguel Wisnik from the Brazilian, based on the only set of pieces from the medieval Galician-Portuguese secular songbook that has survived to this day with its respective period scores: the celebrated “cycle of the sea of Vigo” by Martín Codax. In the seven songs, dating from the 13th century, the poet always speaks on behalf of women; more specifically, of young lovers who mourn the absence or celebrate the imminent return of their beloved-friend. In their eagerness for reunion, they confide sometimes to the sea, sometimes to their mothers, sometimes to friends. And, to appease or lash out at their desire, they go to bathe in the waves of the sea of Vigo.
The lyricism of the medieval troubadour leads Rodrigo Pederneiras to base his score of movements on the alternation between calm and fury and on the ebb and flow characteristic of ocean waves, and also to (re)produce, in the stage play, the separation between feminine and masculine, where one always complains about the absence of the other, in a choreography marked by the constant flow of advances and retreats and by the recurrence of sinuous or abrupt movements of the torso.
By combining a geometric form (a huge square of hollow aluminum) with an organic form (meters and meters of a synthetic mesh manufactured for shading agricultural crops), both manipulable vertically, Paulo Pederneiras constructs a metamorphic scenario that, throughout the performance, transforms itself and forms representations of distinct landscapes and elements: sea, mountains, clouds, boat, fishing net, dawn.
Using fine, one-piece fabrics dyed to match each dancer's skin tone, Freusa Zechmeister applies inscriptions and textures based on medieval ornaments, transforming the dancers' bodies into a canvas for period symbolism and creating the illusion that the stage is populated by men and women "in the nude," whose "nudity" is covered only by one of the most archaic symbols of maritime imagery: the tattoo.
