‘Passagers’ by Les 7 Doigts. (Courtesy photos)
Canada’s Les 7 Doigts makes its Texas debut for TITAS with Passagers
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND director Charles Santos is devoted to the organization’s mission of presenting the art of dance from around the world. But even he was surprised to find Les 7 Doigts cirque-type act in T/DU’s current season. Still, the Canadian company will make its Texas debut this weekend.
“I am a firm believer in ‘Never say never,’ but Les 7 Doigts’ Passagers is an exception,” Santos said in an interview with Dallas Voice back in August, just after T/DU’s season announcement. “We don’t do cirque shows because this is a dance series, but this piece about passengers on a train is choreographed with acrobats and others within an inch of its life. It’s so sophisticated and cool, I had to have it.”
The Montreal-based Les 7 Doigts collective merges dance, theater and circus-type feats in its storytelling which adds to the diversity of this T/DU season.
Queer dancer/performer Eduardo De Azevedo Grillo hsa been with this show for a mere two months. He’s part of the show’s second cast, and, while he wasn’t part of the show’s creation, he’s enthusiastic about how he has connected with the show personally.
“For me, when I saw the show, I hadn’t seen my family for a long time,” he said. “To me the show reminds me of those memories I have, and that really spoke to me. I think that’s what’s really special about Passagers.”
He hopes the audience will find its own connection this weekend. Passagers will be perfomed Friday and Saturday at the Moody Performance Hall.
“While there’s no specific story line, it shows how we’re just passengers in our memories that each of us have,” the 26 year-old said.
As for his Texas debut, Grillo was politely refraining from any stereotypes about the state and its cowboy and Cowboys reputation.
“I used to hear a lot about Texas as a kid, like the football team and, well, I never got a…” he said, trying to find the right words until asked about the usual Western notions of Texas. “(Laughs) Yes, I didn’t want to say anything like that but yes, that’s what I think of.”
In new cities he travels to with the show, what he notices the most is the reception.
Grillo, a native Brazilian, has traveled to several places he had never been before, so while he takes in all the new sites, it’s stage time where he pays the most attention.
“The public can be very different at each place. Some places are more used to theater or bands, or they have their own traditions. But it’s always fun to see how they react to us,” he said. “I think we always leave a good impression.”
And that an impression includes acrobatics and aerials in the multidisciplinary performance.
Grillo’s background didn’t start with circus performance. He started ballroom dancing at 15. That opened the door for breakdancing and other types of performance. But then he found the circus.
“There was this circus fitness class offered that would help us be stronger to dance,” he said. “I fell in love with that. Then I moved to Montreal for circus school and worked on flying trapeze and other things.” He graduated from Montreal’s National Circus School last year. He then joined Les 7 Doigts a year later. 
In Passagers, Grillo performs an aerial number with straps.
It was dance that began to open his eyes to other things as well.
Grill identifies as nonbinary and panseexual, but he said that as he worked on his dancing, it gave him something he didn’t expect: “It was the first time that I let myself have something with a man, and it was cool,” he said. “I wouldn’t have met him otherwise, if I had not been dancing.”
For Grillo, the world of dancing and circus was a supportive one where he discovered his authentic queer self. Even though Brazil has a large queer community, he wasn’t fitting in there as much as he’d like.
“You enter a community and start discovering yourself, but then I’d feel I wasn’t enough — I wasn’t queer enough,” he said. In his dance and performance communities, he’s clearly proven to be more than enough, in all aspects.
Today, Grillo is good with all that and ready for Dallas and ready to perform and explore with the cast and crew of Les 7 Doigts.
“We are a family, and it’s nice to spend that time with them,” he said. “We can hang out; we can leave each other alone while we’re out, but for the show, it’s all happy moments.”
For more information and tickets, click here. Follow Grillo at @grilloeduardo.
