Let's take dances. But which dances, we ask? Let's take bodies. But which bodies, we ask? Let's take multiplicity.
Starting little by little, encounter by encounter, to open up the expanded notion of ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies, we aim to open it up to more artists, creators and/or performers, in a network of relationships that is constantly growing. We hope to continue expanding it in future editions of the program, inviting people from the dance field but also from other areas of knowledge.
ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies is a project in constant movement, transformation, and evolution. Continuously in the process of construction, and always asking questions. Thus, its first edition, which begins in 2023, reflects the desire to share and exchange experiences and knowledge, valuing the differences between the two curators, Cláudia Galhós and Natacha Campos. The former is a dance critic with a vast and diversified professional career that has begun in the 1990s, and the latter is an emerging dancer and choreographer. Establishing a partnership between Ordem do O and Estúdios Victor Córdon, the new program takes place between July 1st and December 8th, and unfolds in four sessions.
In its first edition, ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies proposes a series of sessions focused on dance(s), comprising three moments:
- ECO.trade stories (conversations, sharing stories);
- ECO.ntros (sharing knowledge through a masterclass or other format, depending on the mentor);
- ECO.arc documentation (the recorded conversations will be made available on Youtube, the website, Instagram and Facebook).
In this first series of sessions, artists and thinkers, with relevant careers in the field of dance or dance and body theory, are invited to talk, share their concerns, theoretical and creative processes, and artistic practices, drawing from the way each one of them expresses their identity through their work, and the places they inhabit in their intimate, societal, national and international contexts. In each session, stories are shared that reflect distinct experiences, giving due importance to the transmission and valuing those differences, which can be generational, cultural, identitary, stylistic, etc.
We start by sharing and exchanging dance worlds and identities in conversations between three people (from different generations, cultural origins and artistic paths, configuring each group with that concern every time). Along with a conversation, there is a session where an artist will share knowledge with the public (in the form of a workshop, seminar, conference-performance, artistic exercise or other).
This year, the following twelve artists will participate in the project: Joãozinho da Costa, Margarida Bettencourt, Daniel Matos (July 1st); Joana Castro, Joana Providência, and Ves Liberta (July 29th); Piny, Olga Roriz, Liliana Garcia (September 23rd); Pedro Ramos, Xana Novais, and Josefa Pereira (December 8th).
