Choreographer
Victor Hugo Pontes has a degree in Fine Arts - Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. In 2001, he attended the Norwich School of Art & Design, England. He concluded the professional theater courses at Balleteatro Escola Profissional and at Teatro Universitário do Porto, as well as a course in Research and Choreographic Creation at Fórum Dança, Lisbon. In 2004, he took a course in Theater Directing at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, directed by the English company Third Angel, and, in 2006, also the course of Projet Thierry Salmon - La Nouvelle École des Maîtres, conducted by Pippo Delbono, in Belgium and Italy.
As a performer, he has worked with several directors and choreographers, among them Nuno Carinhas, Lygia Pape, Isabel Barros, Clara Andermatt, Charlie Degotte, David Lescot and Joana Craveiro.
As a creator, his career began in 2003 with a work entitled Puzzle. Since then, he has been consolidating his choreographic language, having presented his work all over the country, as well as in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Austria, and Brazil, among others.
Of his most recent creations as director/choreographer, highlights include: Fuga Sem Fim (2011), A Ballet Story (2012), ZOO (2013), Ocidente, de Rémi de Vos (2013), Fall (2014), COPPIA (2014) in co-creation with Manuela Azevedo and Hélder Gonçalves, Se alguma vez precisares da minha vida, vem e toma-a (2016), CARNAVAL (2016), by invitation of the National Ballet of Portugal, Nocturno (2017), in co-creation with Joana Gama, Margem (2018), Drama (2019), Madrugada (2019), by invitation of the National Ballet of Portugal, Os Três Irmãos (2020), Meio no Meio (2021) and Porque é Infinito (2021).
In March 2007 he won 1st prize at the International Choreography Competition Ludwigshafen, in Germany, with the work Ícones. In 2013, he was nominated for the SPA Awards in the category of Best Choreography with the piece A Ballet Story and, in 2021, he was also nominated with the piece The Three Brothers. In 2019, he won that same award with the work Margem. He was part of the DanceWeb 2017 program of the ImPulsTanz Festival (Vienna) as a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation grantee, and in that context worked with Jan Fabre, David Zambrano, Doris Uhlich and Benôit Lachambre, among others. The choreographer is, since 2009, the Artistic Director of Nome Próprio - Associação Cultural.
Victor Hugo Pontes collaborates in the Young Composers program as coordinator of the choreographic work. Also, in 2023, the choreographer is the invited artist to be At Home in the EVC.
