Dancer

Abel Rojo

With the aim of supporting independent artistic creation, this program welcomes creators in the field of dance and other areas of artistic intersection, at national and international level, for a maximum period of two weeks.

Applications are accepted continuously and residencies are scheduled in our calendar on a first-come, first-served basis. Since their beginnings, the EVC have been a space where multiple languages coexist, responding in direct proportion to the needs of the artistic community.

Artist Residencies 2024

###### <u>Daily practice for professionals</u>

Daily classical and contemporary dance practice designed for professional dancers or those in the process of becoming professional dancers. The diversity of the invited teachers’ proposals aims to mirror our approach to what can constitute a dance practice today. 

###### Classical dance
Mon / Wed / Fri: 10:00 to 11:15 a.m.

###### Contemporary dance
Tue / Thu: 10:00 to 11:15 a.m.

###### Price
3€/class (insurance required)

###### <u>Classical dance classes for adults</u>

Classical dance classes for adults are designed for beginners or for those who have been connected to classical dance and want to continue this practice as a means to their well-being.

###### Classical dance
Mon / Wed: 6:30 to 20:00 p.m.

###### Price
10€/class (insurance required)

Dance Classes in Studio 1

Territory is a program dedicated to young dancers aged between 14 and 18 from dance schools all over the country. Over the course of its many editions, the program has welcomed more than 90 young dancers from across the country, coming from nearly 40 dance schools.

In this eighth edition, the program features choreographers Marco Goecke and Nadav Zelner. By proposing this names, we reaffirm the need to establish and promote transformative professional experiences for each participating dancer. Marco Goecke, a choreographer associated with the most prestigious dance companies, brings a language of his own which dismantles a certain notion of a conventional vocabulary, determining highly trained bodies in his practice highly. This opens the path for a lexicon that is entirely unexpected, exact, and devoid of decorative elements. In his turn, with choreographer on the rise Nadav Zelner, performers will have the opportunity to experience an intense searching process combining various areas of artistic creation, which process will present a vision of a choreographic gesture undergoing profound changes, reflecting the rapid and dramatic transformations of the world in which we live.

This edition will also feature a film directed by Alexia Fernandes, winner of the Território | Estúdios Victor Córdon award for Best Portuguese Director from InShadow - Lisbon ScreenDance Festival 2024.

After its premiere in Porto, the Territory VIII performance will move on to Lisbon, where it will be performed at the Millenium Festival ao Largo, concluding its cycle at Teatro Aveirense.

Territory VIII

2025

Composer

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In its eighth edition, the Young Composers Program continues to promote a collaborative spirit and to foster interactions among artists in creation processes. This time, it focuses on the artistic areas of composition, writing, and choreography. 

In addition to the main featured areas in this year’s edition, the EVC have hosted quite a few artists from other creative areas. Countless collaborations have emerged from this between participants, who have initiated joint projects beyond the context of the program and established their own professional careers.

Another countless number of partnerships and collaborations have been established with higher education institutions and groups of early career professionals, such as Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, Escola Superior de Dança, Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha, Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto, the Concrète [Lab] Ensemble, and Ar.Co — Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual.

Young Composers — 2025

Afonso Nogueira

Dancer, Teacher, Actor

André Cabral

**Contemporary dance(s) - diaspora and Afro-descendants in the Portuguese artistic context**

On this day dedicated to dialogue at EVC, we will hear from African and African descent whom we have invited to share with us their experiences and reflections on their artistic, research and pedagogical practices, as well as on the presence of black people and narratives from the African diaspora in the context of contemporary dance in Portugal. Here, 'contemporary dance' is understood as a concept that encompasses dances of contemporaneity, such as street dances, clubbing and social dances, whose presence in cultural institutions and academic contexts is a subject for debate.

Thus, we intend to raise questions around the documentation, transmission, dissemination and support of these contemporary dances, and to do so with the people who practice them - and through their narratives - in spaces of visibility. 

What dances from the African diaspora remain in Portugal, and how are they being transformed? What relationships are possible between street dances, social dances and academic dances in an institutional system of artistic education and production? 

What role can dance play in a broader reflection on Portugal's relationship with the countries it colonized?

###### Guests and program [HERE](https://estudiosvictorcordon.pt/en/events/contemporary-dance-s-diaspora-and-afro-descendants-in-the-portuguese-artistic-context-1)

###### Public in general, but specially directed to arts professionals

###### Free access

###### Portuguese sign language translation

Conference Meetings for the Future V

_In Transit_ establishes connections with numerous festivals that have a preponderant and essential role for the future of dance in Portugal. Through this program, EVC supports artistic practices in a continuous collaboration with partner festivals and contributes to their consolidation as spaces for artistic creation, mediation, promotion and internationalization. 

The program also invites structures that promote dance initiatives to develop some of their activities in collaboration with EVC. 


In Transit 2023

Cultural association

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With the aim of supporting independent artistic creation, this program hosts artists and collectives working in the field of dance or in areas of artistic intersection, both national and international, for a maximum period of two weeks.

Applications are accepted continuously throughout the year, and residencies are scheduled in our calendar on a first-come, first-served basis. Since their beginnings, the EVC have been a space where multiple languages coexist, directly meeting the needs of the artistic community.

Artist Residencies — 2025

Associação VAGAR

Aurélia Bellet

Dance and performance artist

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Through the In Transit Program, the EVC establish partnerships with various festivals that play a fundamental role in promoting artistic creation and the access to the performing arts in Portugal. By maintaining a continuous collaboration with the partner festivals, the EVC contribute to establishing them as spaces for creation, mediation, promotion, and internationalization of the arts, as well as to the movements of social transformation driven by the topics highlighted in their respective programs.

In Transit also encourages partner institutions to develop some of their dance projects in collaboration with the EVC.


In Transit — 2025

Bárbara Cordeiro

Performer and choreographer

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Be Dias

Póvoa do Varzim, 1995.

Beatriz Valentim

Now in its seventh edition, the Young Composers Program continues to promote a collaborative spirit and foster interactions between artists in creative processes, this time focusing on Music Composition, Writing and Choreography.

Throughout its existence, several composers, choreographers, writers, visual artists, directors, stage directors, instrumentalists, singers, dancers and actors/actresses have participated in the program. From here, many other collaborations have emerged between these artists, who, outside the context of the program, have started joint projects and consolidated their own professional careers.

Since the first edition of Young Composers, the program has developed a number of partnerships and collaborations with higher education institutions and groups of professionals at the start of their careers, including Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, Escola Superior de Dança, Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha, Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto, the Concrète [Lab] Ensemble and Ar.Co - Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual.


Young Composers - 2024

Proposed by the National Arts Plan (PNA), this year’s program has the partnership of the EVC. Together, they will bring to two public schools in Lisbon and in Porto two choreographers who participated in the Young Composers Program in 2024: Beatriz Valentim and Joana Franco. Over the course of three months, both choreographers will develop projects within the school community, giving students the possibility to experience the creative look from the world of dance. The initiative will be accompanied by filmmaker João Sanchez, who will create a film based on the program’s activities.

Artist-in-Residence ⏤ PNA

Dancer, choreographer, visual artist

Carlota Lagido

The entrance to the EVC building has become an exhibition space, welcoming proposals on an ongoing basis by visual artists whose work has a connection to performing arts in general and dance in particular. This year, we welcome a curatorial idea by choreographer Carlota Lagido, who invited three dance artists who have a strong connection to the visual arts -  Luís Guerra, João Galante and Elizabete Francisca.


### _brain, eyes, hands and paper_
##### Curated by Carlota Lagido

_What is this capacity of the body that takes what we observe and puts it on a sheet of paper? I'm talking about the body transmuting itself into a drawing, in an intricate fusion between eyes, hands and paper. It's like the development of a mental muscle that mysteriously extends down the arm, reaches the hand and travels across the paper. It turns into movement and dynamism. There are people in the world of performing arts who have been drawing even before they started using their bodies as tools. Luís Guerra, João Galante and Elizabete Francisca are some of these people. These exhibitions reveal three different ways of using mental muscles, each with its own identity and beauty. Drawing is a physical act that requires time, memory, focus, practice, will, endurance and freedom. It's like dancing._ ― Carlota Lagido


Exhibition space

In 2024, the EVC's Foyer became an exhibition space, welcoming proposals on an ongoing basis by visual artists whose work has a connection to the performing arts in general and to dance in particular. After the first edition of a cycle of exhibitions curated by Carlota Lagido, during which we welcomed works by Luís Guerra, João Galante and Elizabete Francisca, we present a new edition with artists Flávio Rodrigues, Miguel Bonneville and Ana Caetano.

#### cérebro, olhos, mãos e papel [“brain, eyes, hands and paper”] — 2nd edition

&nbsp;

_What is this capacity of the body that takes what we observe and puts it on a sheet of paper? I’m talking about the body transmuting itself into a drawing, in an intricate fusion between eyes, hands and paper. It’s like the development of a mental muscle that mysteriously extends down the arm, reaches the hand and travels across the paper. It turns into movement and dynamism. There are people in the world of performing arts who have been drawing even before they started using their bodies as tools. These exhibitions reveal three different ways of using mental muscles, each with its own identity and beauty. Drawing is a physical act that requires time, memory, focus, practice, will, endurance and freedom. It’s like dancing. In this second edition, drawing turns into action with Flávio Rodrigues, into sculpture with Miguel Bonneville, and into movement with Ana Caetano._ ― Carlota Lagido

Exhibitions — 2025

Lisboa, 1963.

Clara Andermatt

_Other Worlds_ is a program dedicated to the representation of migrant communities residing in Portugal in new dance creations. Despite the geographical proximity, immigrant communities often remain on the margin of the local community, which, due to this isolation, makes them potential focal points of exclusion and targets of social prejudice. By making present in institutional spaces the diverse cultures that weave our identity as a society, we can actively contribute to the deconstruction of narratives that dehumanize the other, often making them the target of our shortcomings as a collective.

Throughout its duration, the program, which will cyclically select a target country, aims to draw attention to this country's culture through the perspective of an artist in the field of dance. In this first edition, the focus is on Iran and Iranian culture, under the direction of choreographer Clara Andermatt. The piece was created throughout 2024, and its premiere was on January 31 and February 1, 2025, at Teatro Camões, to be followed by other public performances.

Included in the program is the IR ÀS ESCOLAS ["Visiting Schools"] initiative, which aims to make the culture and realities experienced by Iranian people known to young school communities in Portugal through talks and short performances.

Other Worlds ⏤ Iran

Dancer and choreographer

Cláudia Nóvoa (c) António Rebolo.jpg

This program supports independent artistic creation, welcoming Portuguese and international dance artists and creators from other artistic areas, for a maximum period of two weeks. Since its inception, EVC is a space of cohabitation of multiple languages, acting in direct response to the needs of the artistic community.


Artist Residencies 2023

Cláudia Nóvoa

Dance performer, Choreographer

Connor Scott 1 ©Gabriela Carvalho.jpg

Connor Scott

Torres Novas, Portugal, 1985.

David Marques 

_Itineraries_ is a program that encourages artistic creation, aimed at Mozambican creators in the field of dance, in a partnership between OPART E.P.E. | Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, through the Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo. 
Intending to create a network that links Mozambique, Portugal, and other partners in Europe, the project develops initiatives that connect the associated countries to promote the internationalization of artists. 
 
 ⏤

>"As a facilitator of this program, which is so important for the materialization (and creation) of perspectives about the need for collaboration between artists and cultural institutions in Portugal and artists from countries once colonized by Portugal, I wish we could, together, look at this project with curiosity and a sense of responsibility. So that the network can grow and expand, and these itineraries have as many meanings as there are individual and collective stories."  
> 
> David Marques


Itineraries 2022

The incentive program for artistic creation _Itineraries_, aimed at Mozambican dance artists, will be held for the 3rd consecutive year. This is a partnership between Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões - Institute for Cooperation and Language, through the Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo. 

The project aims to create a network between Mozambique, Portugal and other partners in Europe, developing initiatives that relate the various territories to each other, in order to promote internationalization in artistic creation. 

⎯ 

>_As a facilitator of this program - so important for the materialization (and creation) of a reflection on the need for collaboration between artists and cultural institutions in Portugal and artists from countries once colonized by Portugal - I wish that we could, together, welcome this project with curiosity and a sense of responsibility. For the network to grow and expand, and for these itineraries to have as many meanings as there are individual and collective stories._
>
##### David Marques


Itineraries 2023

##### _At Home_ is a space dedicated to dance artists who, throughout the year, are invited to develop their projects at the EVC and make them their creative home. After having been introduced to the work of Miguel Moreira, João dos Santos Martins, Jonas & Lander, Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Victor Hugo Pontes in previous years, in 2024 we welcome Teresa Silva, who will show us her work in all its facets and different formats.

##### Over the course of a year, various projects by her or in collaboration with others will be developed at the EVC.

##### Teresa Silva (Lisbon, 1988) has dedicated herself to research, creation and performing in the fields of contemporary dance and performance since 2008. She sees dance as something that goes beyond the physical body, resulting in a work of attentiveness and sensitivity, as well as a multidisciplinary approach to movement.

##### The artist will bring to the EVC a series of very different proposals, in collaboration with Sara Anjo, David Marques, Kristina Norman, and Mathieu Bouvier, among others.

###### Oráculo expandido [“Expanded oracle”] — towards an investigation into practices of care, attention and connection

Since 2017, Sara Anjo and Teresa Silva have been researching the potential of the body as a place of knowledge and revelation, and have designed workshops and created a piece based on the premise “can the body be an oracle?” There is a great diversity of people who share a curiosity for practices aimed at a holistic awareness of the body, and _Oráculo expandido_ is an invitation to continue this research, opening it up to other people and expanding the research to other languages, practices and perspectives. 

» 23 Nov, 4pm - 7pm, EVC

###### Fazer falar o fazer [“Making the making speak”] — devices for creating speech about artistic practices

This project, conceived and developed by David Marques and Teresa Silva, arises from the desire to make the work of their generation more visible and to bring the community together around the issues that move and engage them in their artistic practices. In this sense, the artists will develop different devices that encourage thinking, speaking and listening, and which provide encounters between artists and between the artists and the audience. In this _Making the making speak_'s edition, Teresa and David invite Ana Rita Teodoro, Andresa Soares and Francisco Rolo to an openly exchange.

» 30 Nov, 2:30pm - 8pm, EVC

###### Carnation

After collaborating on _Orchidelirium — An appetite for Abundance_, a project presented at the 2022 Venice Biennale, Estonian visual artist Kristina Norman has partnered with Teresa Silva to conceive a new piece. This time, the artists use the red carnation as a symbol of power and freedom, seeking to bring into dialogue the culture and history of their respective countries.

###### Ah! — Experimentation sessions for a transformative artistic practice

In this project driven by Teresa Silva, the artist aims to show how artistic practice generates states of attention, self-knowledge and transformation that intensify human potentialities. In these individual sessions, each person will be invited to listen to what affects them in the present moment and therefrom work together on a sensitive and experimental path, through exercises, tasks and actions. To prepare the sessions, Teresa Silva draws on her research with Sara Anjo around the question "can the body be an oracle?" and finds inspiration in the work of artists such as Anna Halprin, Lygia Clark (Relational Objects), Alejandro Jodorowsky (Psychomagic) and Valentina Desideri (Fake Art Therapy), who have made and continue to make their artistic practice a place of affection, ritual and healing.

In these sessions, which will be individual, each person will be invited to listen to what affects them in the present moment and, from there, work together on a sensitive and experimental path, through exercises, tasks and actions.

» 10 - 20 Dez, 45 minutes individual sessions, 11am - 7pm, EVC

» Registration | By completing this form: [https://forms.gle/UPdi27jWqwR45hZD6](link)


At Home ⏤ Teresa Silva

Extending a series of collaborations we have had since 2020 with Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and promoting creation and mobility of artists, this year’s PALOP 2025 Program is organized around two main axes:

## Guinea-Bissau: _Kurpu di Mundu_
&nbsp;
- **coordinator** Pedro Ramos
- **co-production** Estúdios Victor Córdon, Camões Bissau, Ballet Nacional da Guiné, Ordem do Ó

This project arises from a series of artist residencies and training programs between Guiné-Bissau and Portugal, from choreographers Ernesto Nambera and Pedro Ramos’ creative partnership, and from the exchange between collaborating dancers from Ordem do Ó and Ballet Nacional/Grupo de Dança Contemporânea da Guiné-Bissau. In _Kurpu di Mundu_, the aim is to reflect on some of the main concerns of today’s world at a political, social, and environmental level, but also on the potential of dance and the body to foster reflection on the possible meanings that engaging with others and with what surrounds us can have. Between past and present times, we propose an attunement to the multiple biological and spiritual realities, aligned with the feeling of belonging and of being connected to the earth.

## Mozambique: _Other Directions_ 
&nbsp;
- **coordinator** David Marques
- **coproduction** Estúdios Victor Córdon, Camões Maputo

In 2025, the EVC and the Portuguese choreographer David Marques will travel to Maputo in search of new connections and to meet again dance artists with whom they have already collaborated. These meetings are to be understood as a free space for dialogue, devoted both to the sharing of ways of doing and work tools and to the dance community’s concerns and needs. With these meetings, we wish to provide the occasion and time to conceive new possibilities of cooperation for the future, taking into account the challenges and the social, cultural, and political circumstances in present-day Mozambique and Portugal.

PALOP — 2025 

David Marques

Multidisciplinary artist

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Flávio Rodrigues

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Gonçalo Andrade

Playwright, writer and stage director

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Gustavo Colombini

Dance, performer and choreographer

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Henrique Furtado Vieira

Choreographer and dancer

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Joana Couto

Viana do Castelo, Portugal, 1999.

Jovens Compositores - Compositores & Coreógrafos

Joana Franco

Dancer, Performer, Choreographer

João Cardoso

An intensive week targeting dance professionals, with workshops led by the João Cardoso and Edivaldo Ernesto. 
 
###### Target Audience
Dance professionals


KICK OFF’22 

With the aim of promoting complementary training for professional dancers or those in the process of becoming professional dancers, focusing on technical development, dance language diversity, and knowledge exchange, we established the EVC Training Program and the Kick-Off Program with the support of GDA. The three invited instructors for this year’s editions have established their own language and methodology over the past few years, and they are unanimously recognized by their peers.

### Kick Off ’25

_Falling Into Movement in Connection_, with João Cardoso

In recent years, both as a dancer/performer and as a teacher, João Cardoso has shown a growing interest in contact improvisation techniques and in their application to both horizontal floorwork and vertical movement in contemporary dance classes. Connection with music plays a crucial role in this class model, for it serves as a vehicle for practicing a playful body, one that enjoys moving energetically. Practice itself begins with shared or individual moments of “resetting the body”, whether through breathing exercises, by exploring fatigue, or by improvising from points of contact. On the one hand, practice evolves into movement research patterns, focusing on touch as a tool to awaken forgotten parts of the body. On the other hand, it engages in floorwork techniques, fostering awareness of transitions between horizontal and vertical settings and challenging the concept of a “collective mind”. Sprinkled with a touch of expressive drama, this practice invites the development of bodies and minds that are capable, gentle, humble, curious, aware, and intimately connected to the sheer pleasure of dancing and moving.

_Práticas Anímicas_ [“Soul Practices”], with Pedro Ramos

These movement practices assemble a series of techniques linked to the body, both inside and outside an artistic context, and which combine choreographic experiences, yogic and somatic techniques, alchemical studies, and tuning strategies. Experiences in which the body, as a psycho-physical unity, is engaged and is brought to the foreground in a dialogue with space, breathing, and its own inner dimension. The body as a “piece of nature” to be rediscovered as its movement becomes conscious. Through the shaping of presence is thus explored a set of perceptual tasks which lead to movement and sound, and which might result in other forms of expression: words, visual writing, or sound writing.

Kick Off ’25

João Cardoso

PhD candidate, translator and music critic

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João Esteves da Silva

Filmmaker

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João Sanchez

Researcher and musicologist

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Júlia Durand

Dancer, Teacher

Lewis Seivwright

Choreographer and dramaturg

Ligia Soares

Lígia Soares

Performer, choreographer and teacher

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Loïc Perela

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Luís Oliveira

Lisbon, Portugal, 1969.

Luís Tinoco

This program promotes the collaborative spirit and enhances collaborations between composers and artists from other areas in the creative process. _Young Composers_ develops in three moments of experimentation and creation that culminate with a presentation of the materials created throughout the process.

In previous editions, artists such as Joana Craveiro, the duo Inês Barahona and Miguel Fragata, or writers such as Gonçalo M. Tavares have collaborated on the program. 

In 2023, _Young Composers_ will be coordinated by composer Luís Tinoco, with the collaboration of choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes, visual artist João Penalva and the Concrete [Lab] Ensemble, and the participation of students from Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (ESML), Escola Superior de Dança (ESD), Escola Superior de Artes e Design (ESAD.CR) and Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE).



Young Composers 2023

Opera singer and librettist

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Marcia Bellamy

Choreographer, Dancer

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In this new EVC Program, we aim to bring the general public and dance artists closer together. Over the course of one day structured with both a practical and a theoretical component, participants will have the opportunity to experience creative processes and what they are based on, thus helping create or deepen readings of the invited artist’s own works and proposals. In this first edition of the program, we welcome choreographer and dancer Marco da Silva Ferreira. He began his body practice in 1996 through sports, specifically through high-performance swimming. In 2022, he abandoned sports in favor of body practices in the context of the performing arts. He is a self-taught dancer, having practiced urban dance styles with African-American influence.


Words and Practices

Marco da Silva Ferreira

Choreographer

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Marco Goecke

Dancer and creator

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Maria Fonseca

Singer, improviser and composer

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Mariana Dionísio

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Nadav Zelner

Lisbon, Portugal.

Pedro Ramos

Now in its second edition, Season Partners establishes partnerships with independent artistic production structures, for one or more seasons, to carry out projects of common interest.

The program, which has so far developed projects in collaboration with Associação Parasita, Ordem do O and the online portal Coffeepaste, expands the space dedicated to the artistic practices and research of the artistic community, fostering the sharing of responsibility in action and encouraging cooperation. In this edition, we are continuing the previously established partnerships and starting a new collaboration with Associação VAI, which brings us the OU.kupa project.

### Associação VAI
#### OU.kupa project
##### Curated by Piny
##### ⏤ OU.kupa Residencies
These residencies aim to open up space and time for artistic research in the studio, with mentoring, for areas of dance that have not been given much attention and space in institutional venues in Portugal, but which are part of the the cultural fabric, often made invisible. 
##### ⏤ With the project _OU.kupando - what fits in contemporary dance(s)?_, the aim is to broaden the spectrum of techniques that are shared in the contemporary dance practice for professionals offered by the EVC, making it possible to inscribe new dance histories - narratives that fill in the absences.

### Parasita
#### _Wording Dances_ - ongoing series
##### Curated by Carlos Manuel Oliveira
##### A series of lectures presented in podcast format, in which distinguished artists from around the world talk about issues that make contemporary dance and its various manifestations an endless ground for questioning and creation.
#### _Thinking about Audio Description for Contemporary Dance_
##### Curated by Ana Rita Teodoro
##### The EVC will host this collective training and research experience, curated by artist Ana Rita Teodoro, during the classical and contemporary dance observation sessions.

### Ordem do O
#### _Ecosystem.dances.bodies_
##### 2nd edition
##### Curated by Cláudia Galhós and mediated by Natacha Campos
##### _Ecosystem.dances.bodies_ is a project in movement, transformation and renewal, consisting of conversations, masterclasses, lectures and workshops. It proposes alternative ways of sharing in a stimulating context, where artists and public meet.

### Coffeepaste
#### Workshops and training
##### 2nd edition
##### In the context of a partnership with Coffeepaste, the portal for the dissemination of the performing arts will propose another cycle of events dedicated to dance studies, including workshops and the sharing of artistic practices in this field.

Season Partners 2024

Multidisciplinary Artist

Piny

Throughout the year, the Season Partners Program establishes partnerships with independent artistic production structures to share goals and to carry out projects of common interest. Having already collaborated with Associação Parasita, Ordem do Ó, Associação VAI (OU.kupa), and the online portal CoffeePaste in the context of this program, we have been expanding the space dedicated to the practices and research of the artistic community, promoting the sharing of responsibility in action and encouraging cooperation among structures.

### **Associação VAI — OU.kupa Project**

As part of the collaboration initiated in 2024, the OU.kupa Project together with Piny brought to the EVC creation practices and dance styles systematically made invisible in powerful institutional spaces, such as vogue, house, or breaking. In this year, we continue our collaboration with this project through a new cycle of conversations and classes offered by the EVC, with the aim of expanding the scope of common techniques that are part of daily practice for dance professionals. We set as our mission the recovery and inclusion of narratives and histories of dance, filling the existing lacunae.

### **Coffeepaste**

In the context of our partnership with Coffeepaste, a portal designed to support the artistic community and dedicated to the dissemination of the performing arts, we propose another cycle of events devoted to dance studies, which will include workshops and the sharing of artistic practices in this field.

**complementary training workshops for professionals / choreographers and specific dates to be confirmed**

Season Partners ⏤ 2025

Performer, choreographer, teacher

Sara Schürmann

Choreographer, dancer and stage director

Sofia Brito (c) Karo Krassel.jpeg

Sofia Brito

Artists, Choreographers

At Home is a project designed for dance artists, inviting them to develop their work throughout the year at the EVC. Having welcomed Miguel Moreira, João dos Santos Martins, Jonas & Lander, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Teresa Silva and Victor Hugo Pontes in previous years, we now invite Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz into the various spaces of the EVC with their installations and performative projects: _Arrumar a casa_ ["Putting the House in Order"], _Da desordem das paixões_ ["On the Disarray of the Passions"], _Labirinto_ ["Labyrinth"], _À distância de um braço_ ["Within Arm’s Reach"], and _Dueto_ ["Duet"].

_Once “at home”, we will start with some housekeeping—sorting out our archive of nearly 20 years, which urgently needs to be reviewed and organized. MiniDV cassettes, DVDs, CDs, program notes, handouts, posters, notebooks, hard drives, pen drives… materials of all kinds that were scattered around our house and which we are now bringing to the EVC, finally deciding what to preserve and what to discard. But there’s more to this project, **ARRUMAR A CASA**, than housekeeping. Along with the intense work on our archive, we will try to share some bits from our rediscovery of it as we infiltrate the spaces of the EVC in an ever-changing way. Don’t be surprised, then, if throughout the next months you come across some videos, photographs, sounds, or texts in the nooks and crannies of the EVC. Later, in June, during the Popular Saints’ Festivals, we will organize an event with an **installation** now in plain view, and we will share with you the results of a **research laboratory** focused on various performative devices and/or materials from some of our performances._

_As we look back at our past as a duo, we are also turning our gaze to our collective past through **four projects** to be developed over the course of the year. Two of these projects, albeit developed with different collaborators, share a focus on the Baroque, specifically on the connection between dance and music that characterizes this period. The first one, **DA DESORDEM DAS PAIXÕES”, will be co-created with the music group Músicos do Tejo, and will premiere in 2026. **LABIRINTO** ["Labyrinth"], a typical metaphor in the Baroque period, is the title of the second project, with no premiere date yet, but born from a desire to experiment with musicians Helena Raposo (lute) and Ana Castanhito (harp). The two other projects are not focused on the Baroque, yet they aim to further the reflection about the past in connection with museum spaces. The third one, **À DISTÂNCIA DE UM BRAÇO**, has been shelved for at least three years, and we are finally able to resume it through a partnership with Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga. With this project, we aim to challenge the settled way of looking at works of art in a museum by creating a performance that seeks to shorten the distance between the “past” that is presented and the spectator’s “present”._

_All these projects will include periods of rehearsal and research at the EVC, and, in some of them, we will open to the public to share materials, reflections, or simply to exchange views on the state of the world._

_Lastly, we will move on to the creation of a **DUETO**. Our last duet for the stage, _O que não acontece_, was created in 2018, and we already miss being alone together in a studio. The duet is the artistic form through which we come together, in which we come closer to who we are, closer to our path in shaping our identity as artists and to our collaboration throughout the last 20 years. It is in this format that we allow ourselves to share with the audience what is most intimate and contradictory about us. So, we will lock ourselves in one of the EVC studios doing what we love most, in order to share it with you afterwards._ — Sofia & Vítor 

At Home ⏤ Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

Choreographer, writer and playwright

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The conference _Meetings for the Future IV_ brings to the centre of the reflexion the transition of careers in the performing arts. 
With an analytical look at the pilot experience developed in the EVC over a period of three months and the current situation in Europe and Portugal, future possibilities concerning the career transition of performing arts professionals are envisaged. 
More than finding answers in the present, the aim is to produce a tangible and clear reading of the current situation that allows us, collectively, to glimpse ways to act in the future. It is, therefore, with our gaze directed towards the future that we intend to propose this reflection and, above all, to stimulate a dialogue committed to the effective implementation of practices in the field of career management and transition - projecting into the future a permanent mechanism that will have the capacity to leverage and facilitate this process. 

###### Target Audience
Performing arts professionals

###### Free access

###### Accessibility
Simultaneous Translation and Portuguese Sign Language (LGP)

Conference ⏤ Meetings for the Future IV

Sónia Baptista

Playwright and librettist

Displaying IMG_3171.jpeg

Stephen Plaice

Performer, dancer, contemporary circus artist

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With the aim of promoting complementary training for professional dancers or those in the process of becoming professional dancers, focusing on technical development, dance language diversity, and knowledge exchange, we established the EVC Training Program and the Kick-Off Program with the support of GDA. The three invited instructors for this year’s editions have established their own language and methodology over the past few years, and they are unanimously recognized by their peers.
### EVC Training
A complementary intensive training program for dance artists that gives them the opportunity to get acquainted with the fundamental languages of contemporary dance worldwide.

#### Movement Practice with Tiago Martins

The fundamental basis of Movement practice is the contrasting exposure of the body to unknown situations, situations of chaos and complexity, which can transform both the moment and the structure. In this confrontation, one learns to deal with the interconnectedness of seeing and doing, doing and feeling, feeling and being through paradigms, questions, and puzzles, while creating situations that foster mobility, organic strength, balance, coordination, and locomotion. As a whole, the practice of Movement empowers and enables the global development of a body that moves with increasing awareness and, above all, with greater humanity.

EVC Training — 2025

Tiago Martins

Guimarães, Portugal, 1978.

Victor Hugo Pontes @Estelle Valente

As part of the program planned for the triennium 2021-2023 in partnership with Camões - Centro Cultural Português de Maputo, this workshop is developed to share with other dance professionals the work of Portuguese choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes.

###### Target Audience
Dance professionals


Workshop in Maputo

Celebrating 20 years since he began his artistic path, Victor Hugo Pontes is the artist invited to be _At Home_ in 2023. It will be a year of commemoration in which EVC will be the choreographer's temporary home. Here, new works of his will be conceived, and encounters with various formats will be held, through various ways of approaching and promoting a meaningful reflection about his path. 

###### Exhibition ⎯ _For a happiness like this_
Victor Hugo Pontes,  20 years of artistic creation through images

###### Performance lecture ⎯ _Unique physical parts_

###### Book edition ⎯ _For a happiness like this_ 
Victor Hugo Pontes, 20 years of artistic creation
(provisional title)




At Home ⏤ Victor Hugo Pontes

Victor Hugo Pontes

Classical dance classes designed for beginners or for those who have always been connected to dance and want to continue this practice as a means to healthy physical condition. 
 
###### Classical Dance
Mondays: 6:15 pm - 7:45 pm

###### Price
7,5€ / class (insurance required)

Dance Classes for Adults

###### Classical Dance
Mon – Wed – Fri: 10am – 11:15am

###### Contemporary Dance
Tue – Thu: 10am – 11:15am

###### Price
3€ / class (insurance required)


Daily Practice

Classical dance classes designed for beginners or for those who have always been connected to dance and want to continue this practice as a means to their well-being.

###### Classical Dance
##### Mondays
##### Wednesdays
##### 6:30 pm ─ 8:00 pm

###### Price
10€ / class (insurance required)

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ February

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
##### Mon – Wed – Fri
##### 10am – 11:15am

###### CONTEMPORARY DANCE
##### Tue – Thu
##### 10am – 11:15am

###### PRICE
3€ / class (insurance required)

Daily Classes ⎯ February

The EVC Training Program is a complementary intensive training program for dance artists that gives them the opportunity to get acquainted with the fundamental languages of contemporary dance worldwide. This year, we welcome Tiago Martins, who will introduce us to Movement practice. The fundamental basis of this practice is the contrasting exposure of the body to unknown situations, situations of chaos and complexity, which can transform both the moment and the structure. In this confrontation, one learns to deal with the interconnectedness of seeing and doing, doing and feeling, feeling and being through paradigms, questions, and puzzles, while creating situations that foster mobility, organic strength, balance, coordination, and locomotion. As a whole, the practice of Movement empowers and enables the global development of a body that moves with increasing awareness and, above all, with greater humanity.

###### Target audience
Dance artists

###### Price: 200€

###### GDA Scholarships available

###### Insurance required

Complementary Training | EVC TRAINING 2025 — Registration

### Drawings | Self-portraits

_In the first stage of the creative process, as happened in earlier projects, I come across materials as I walk or wander about. On these exploratory paths, materials stand out—cards, sheets of paper, paint, pens, and other materials thrown in the garbage or left outside shops and warehouses. They are assembled as fragments of a urban landscape that is visible, yet often overlooked, marginalized, or deemed undesirable._

_These materials constitute the basis for creation. For sketching, I use two pencils that I got from my father, whose trade is joinery. It’s the traditional red, rectangular-shaped pencil, widely used in workshops and construction, known as carpenter pencil. In my creative process, I also handled a sewing machine, reusing threads and other materials, like paint or pens, also found at the joiner’s workshop or among discarded things. Once in my room, my most intimate space, the sketches prompt reflection on self-representation. Here, I see my body inscribed on the lines and shapes. Physical presence reveals itself not only in action or in a gesture, but also in the traces beyond the body’s own outlines. Each drawing thus materializes as both a source and an extension of that presence, a certain way of capturing it that oscillates between corporeality and its absence—resting in an “in-between”. A naked body, laid bare. Finally, I draw a continuous, uninterrupted line to logically connect all these elements to one another. This stroke is constantly unfolding, as if flowing rhythmically, pulsating. The line, even though it must eventually come to an end and break, reveals in its path a potentially infinite circularity, one that redefines itself at each turn—a tension between permanence and transformation._ — Flávio Rodrigues

### Cérebro, olhos, mãos e papel
[“Brain, eyes, hands and paper”]


_What is this capacity of the body that takes what we observe and puts it on a sheet of paper? I’m talking about the body transmuting itself into a drawing, in an intricate fusion between eyes, hands and paper. It’s like the development of a mental muscle that mysteriously extends down the arm, reaches the hand and travels across the paper. It turns into movement and dynamism. There are people in the world of performing arts who have been drawing even before they started using their bodies as tools. These exhibitions reveal three different ways of using mental muscles, each with its own identity and beauty. Drawing is a physical act that requires time, memory, focus, practice, will, endurance and freedom. It’s like dancing. In this second edition, drawing turns into action with Flávio Rodrigues, into sculpture with Miguel Bonneville, and into movement with Ana Caetano._ ― Carlota Lagido

Drawings | Self-portraits — Flávio Rodrigues

Over the course of two weeks, we welcome artist-in-residence Connor Scott with _Cat-Gut Jim_, a work performed in ancestral drag which invokes the immaterial presence of Edward Corvan, a renowned violinist and folk artist from Tyneside (1831). Connor appropriates E. Corvan’s archive for a ceremonial performative moment, creating space for a single-body duet while simultaneously summoning the ghosts of his own dance.

Cat-Gut Jim — Connor Scott

Classical ballet dance classes designed for beginners or for those who have always been connected to dance and want to continue this practice as a means to their well-being.

###### Classical Dance
##### Mondays
##### Wednesdays
##### 6:30 pm ─ 8:00 pm

###### Price
10€ / class (insurance required)

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ March

###### Classical Dance
##### Mon – Wed – Fri
##### 10am – 11:15am

###### Contemporary Dance
##### Tue – Thu
##### 10am – 11:15am

###### PRICE
3€ / class (insurance required)

Daily Classes ⎯ March

Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz are in residence at the EVC with the project _À distância de um braço_ ["Within arm's reach"] as part of the At Home Program. With this project, which had been shelved for at least three years and is now finally resumed through a partnership with Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, the artists aim to challenge the settled way of looking at works of art in a museum by creating a performance that seeks to shorten the distance between the “past” that is presented and the spectator’s “present”.

À distância de um braço — Sofia & Vítor

The EVC welcome Bárbara Cordeiro with "Estado de graça", a project to be presented as part of the 2025 Biennial Performative Arts Meeting – (Re)union. Organized by Rede More Cultural Association, this is one of our partner festivals as part of this year's In Transit Program.

_The expression "estado de graça" ["state of grace"] refers to someone who has gained another person's favor, and can also be used to describe the suppression of certain "negative" personality traits. This research is an attempt to contextualize the different characters within us, considering not only what they bring but also the narratives we construct when all we can see is a single frame._ — Bárbara Cordeiro

Estado de Graça — Bárbara Cordeiro

_"Meditating on death is meditating on liberty. (...) There is nothing evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that the privation of life is no evil."_ — Michel de Montaigne, Essays, I, XX

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_"In a time when wars make death even more present, what is our relationship with it, both psychologically and geographically? How do we relate to this reality on an individual and collective level? What is our responsibility, and how prepared are we? It is important to address this topic and to entertain new ways of engaging with death. Some cultures celebrate death, while in others it remains a taboo. Generally speaking, throughout history, human beings have sought to delay their approach to the end. But life has a natural limit, and new generations must come. How can we create a dance of coexistence between the living and the dead and their countless beliefs?_

_It is impossible to approach this topic without speaking of time and breathing. The first thing we do when we are born is inhale, and the last is exhale. This aspect will be explored in this piece, and it will be developed in collaboration with Winga Khan. How can we face and take care of this fundamental aspect of life, its final act, in a way that helps us build a more responsible and advanced society? It is time to cultivate beauty, even in the ritual of death."_ — Maria Fonseca

ATA — Maria Fonseca

In their first creative collaboration, Henrique Furtado Vieira and Lígia Soares will be studying, reproducing, and reinventing artistic forms that arise from collapsing systems, in order to create a collection of performances based on the historical relation between crises and the emergence of artistic avant-garde movements. With _Morrer pelos passarinhos_ [“To Die For the Little Birds”], they aim to find meaningful ways of sharing with the audience the end of the world as we have come to know it and to remind that, together, we can express “meaninglessness”, a human being torn apart by the world’s lack of order, just as it was expressed in the grief of past generations. Thus, the project challenges our unquestioning acceptance of this world’s continuous deterioration through a collection of funeral rites—a kind of collective grief that may confront us with emptiness, fear, dehumanization, and, most importantly, with one another.

Morrer pelos passarinhos — Henrique F. Vieira e Lígia Soares

Sofia Brito and a team of artists-mothers create _Artista-Mãe_ with the aim of questioning the complex relationship between motherhood, patriarchy, and capitalism, exploring how these forces shape and challenge the experience of artists-mothers in modern society.