Nacer / Birth is the staging of a birth, with the wisdom of ancestral knowledge of midwives from the Imbabura region (province of Ecuador). The performance is a form of experimental theater in which rituals, different generations, time and space come together. Inspiring views on birth, motherhood and the role of women in building a community are made visible with insights from the Andes, but also through Western perspectives.
The script of Nacer/Birth is based upon personal testimony and is presented with the use of puppetry, video and dance. Humour is used throughout the performance as a way to address the painful and continuous battle between ideologies between westernised and indigenous populations. As a result of the colonial past, homebirth is associated with primitiveness due to deeply embedded prejudices surrounding indigenous culture. The result is that Ecuador now has the highest number of caesarean deliveries in the Americas, not in the least because such medical interventions have become lucrative activities for hospitals.
This intimate, ritual performance was created by Corporación Humor y Vida (Ecuador), in collaboration with Berith Danse of Theater Embassy (NL). Humor y Vida, translated to ‘Humour and Life’ is composed of a collective of female artists from Ecuador and Colombia who work on the contested borderlands between their two home countries, an area frequently used for illegal crossings and also by guerrilla fighters.