Hip-hop began as a solo form. One warrior rapper or b-boy at a time showed off his peculiar prowess, with each act lasting a matter of seconds. It’s no easy task to translate this chain of spectacles into an evening of theater, but a few Brazilians have managed brilliantly. Indeed, it seems to be a Rio specialty for a white, middle-class woman choreographer to attract the trust and enthusiasm of astounding young dancers from Rio’s favelas, where this street art’s Latin American incarnation reaches its heights, and organize the solos so that together they express—in terms poignant, charged, and unresolved—the conditions and spirit of the performers’ lives. One of the most exciting of these directors is the psychoanalyst-turned-choreographer Alice Ripoll. Paris’s Festival d’Automne presents two contrasting works, the austere quartet aCORdo and the jubilant new ensemble piece Zona franca (Free Zone). The latter also tours to London. —Apollinaire Scherr