Marlene Monteiro Freitas (Cape Verde, 1979) studied dance at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), at Escola Superior de Dança de Lisboa and at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
She has worked with choreographers such as Loïc Touzé, Emmanuelle Huynh, Tânia Carvalho, and Boris Charmatz. Her creations include, among others, Canine Jaunâtre 3 (2024), LULU (2023), RI TE (2022, with Israel Galván), ÔSS (2022), the performance Idiota and the exhibition X AND (2022, based on Alex da Silva’s paintings), Pierrot Lunaire (2021), Mal — Embriaguez Divina (2020), the installation Cattivo (2019), Canine Jaunâtre 3 (2018), Bacantes — Prelúdio para uma Purga (2017), Jaguar (2015), De Marfim e Carne — Estátuas Também Sofrem (2014), Paraíso — Colecção Privada (2012), (M)imosa (2011, with Trajal Harrell, François Chaignaud, and Cecilia Bengolea), Guintche (2010), A Seriedade do Animal (2009), Uns e Outros (2008), A Improbabilidade da Certeza (2006), Larvar (2006), and Primeira Impressão (2005). NÔT is her most recent creation for Avignon Festival. The common denominator in this various works is openness, hybridism, impurity, and intensity.
In 2015, she co-founded P.OR.K, a structure based in Lisbon which has produced her work since. In 2017, Jaguar was awarded the SPA Prize for Best Choreography and, in the same year, she was distinguished by the Government of Cape Verde for her cultural achievements. In 2018, she was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Dance Biennale; in 2020, she received the Premi de la Critica d'Arts Escèniques de Barcelona for Best International Performance for her piece Bacantes; and, in 2022, she received the CHANEL Next Prize and the Evens Arts Prize. Since 2020, she has been a co-curator of (un)common ground, a project about the artistic and cultural representation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Photograph
© Peter Hönnemann
