Breathing Underwater

A New Work by Clébio Oliveira

Based on his own migration experience, Clébio Oliveira's PIRARUCU unravels a choreographic examination of bodies that exist between languages, climates, and realities of life. At the heart of the piece is the pirarucu, one of the world's largest freshwater fish, which breathes air yet lives underwater – a biological paradox that symbolises the migrant body, which is forced to adapt its breathing in order to survive in a different environment. In a harsh, dystopian landscape, five dancers move in and out of proximity and distance, desire and adaptation. PIRARUCU creates a sensual cartography of belonging in which memory never fades but instead continues to live on in the body. Homeland emerges as a physiological trace, dance as an act of survival. (jw)

Clébio Oliveira

PIRARUCU

March 12–15, 2026

Uferstudios, Studio 14

www.uferstudios.com