Jesusa Rodríguez and Liliana Felipe : Cabaret prehispánico : el ombligo de las diosas.

'Prehispanic Cabaret' is an act of protest against multinational agricultural biotechnology corporations (such as Monsanto) whose introduction of genetically-modified corn into Mexican agriculture severely threatens the country's intangible cultural heritage by all but eliminating natural corn. 'We are corn people, ' says writer, director and performer Jesusa Rodríguez, who has been politically active in in the uphill battle against the government-backed corporations. This cabaret, unlike most of Jesusa and Liliana's work at El Hábito, is largely non-verbal; it is Liliana's mordant lyrics that give voice to Jesusa's symbolic body onstage as she becomes an indigenous woman, a character in a codex, a peasant, and finally the figure of Death. 'Cabaret Prehispánico' was performed at the Francisco Nunes theater in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as a part of the 5th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, titled Performing Heritage: Contemporary Indigenous and Community-Based Practices (http://hemisphericinstitute.org/eng/seminar/brazil2005/index.html). The performance is followed by a Q&A session, where Jesusa tells the audience that the Death character, besides throwing handfuls of corn up into the air and onto the stage, was also supposed to throw (fake) hundred-dollar bills--except they were stolen at the airport. Jesusa also reveals that this show (performed only once before, in New York) marks the end of their 15-year trajectory at El Hábito. 'There is an abyss behind us and an abyss before us, and we need to take a break to think about where we go from here, ' she says. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics