TerritoryI

This is a program developed by the EVC in partnership with dance schools across Portugal, with the aim of providing a creation experience to young dancers alongside established choreographers in European companies.

After four weeks in residence at the EVC, the most awaited moment has come—the final presentation of this year’s edition. Featured in this presentation will be Marco Arantes’ film Território Paralelo, followed by the absolute premiere of two choreographies by Douglas Lee and Filipe Portugal. At the end, each participating young dancer will present themself.

PLAYDEAD

Choreography by DOUGLAS LEE

Playdead is a new piece for 12 dancers created for Territory I, featuring music by Simeon ten Holt and Ezio Bosso. Games and the creative process were the original inspiration for Playdead.

«My collaboration with the students, as a choreographer, and the creative games in the studio became themes that I associate with childhood, but which change as we grow old. The light and repetitive quality of the minimalist score remind of a music box or the rhythm and sound of a clock, although with an eery side. The changes in the musical atmosphere allow for contrasts between light movement sections and mysterious episodes. Children games, dolls and playing, the sound of the music box, the innocence and simplicity of childhood—when all of these are transferred to the more complex and more experienced world of adults, they can become sinister, threatening, even frightening... The further we are from childhood memories, the eerier and more fragmented these images can become.» — Douglas Lee, 2018

Choreography, costumes and lighting design | Douglas Lee

Music | Incantatie IV by Simeon Ten Holt (Performed by Piano Ensemble — Irene Russo, Fred Oldenburg, Sandra e Jeroen van Veen); Prelude n. 8, Op. 28, “The Dark Room” by Frédéric Chopin (Performed by Ezio Bosso); Una melodia di Gluck “The Therapy Room” by Christoph Willibald Gluck, arranged by Giovanni Sgambatti (Performed by Ezio Bosso)

TERRITÓRIO PARALELO

A film by MARCO ARANTES

«One studio, two choreographers and twelve young dancers from dance schools all over the country. This, in sum, is what defines the EVC’s Territory project. This was the starting point for the work I was invited to develop. Faced with the challenge of directing a film to be presented alongside the two choreographies, the necessity arose to protect the artistic work being developed and not reveal it too much. So, I opted to focus on secondary—but not less interesting—aspects, namely the working relationships between young dances at the beginning of a creative process, space recognition, group recognition, the understanding of new languages, of new aesthetical movements that come up as the choreography is being constructed, in what is to be the first professionalizing experience in the lives of these twelve young dancers.» — Marco Arantes, 2018

O NÃO EFÉMERO (“The Non-Ephemeral”)

Choreography by FILIPE PORTUGAL

«Twelve dancers. Different ages, different educations, united by a common dream and goal: to “fly” high, to go far, always further. And these are life experiences that intersect. Admirations, friendships, complicities that arise, dreams and smiles that are shared. And it is this combination of shared life experiences that makes this project something very special, something these youths will cherish forever as the beginning of their greatest dream’s fulfillment. And they learn not only their “strength” but also their “weakness”, knowing that something which is not very sure today will be more so tomorrow, because that is the natural development for Man. And they learn that we should be ourselves without ever sacrificing our individuality, but coming together as a group, that we grow, upholding one another in a spirit of sharing that leads to full personal realization. In the presence of the group, and plunging into the soul of each member in a communion, a joining of hands between the choreographer and the youths, Filipe Portugal thus fills the pre-existing void, the “nothing”—a “nothing” that transmutes into something very concrete: “the non-ephemeral”. As the common work comes to an end, the young dancers know one thing for sure: the apparent “nothing” is never truly so; the path is never to give up on the dream.» — Teresa Santos

Choreography, costumes and lighting design | Filipe Portugal

Music | Clouds — Abel Korzeniowsk remix; Mozart-Adagio by Arvo Pärt; November (From “Memoryhouse”) by Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà (by Portrait: Max Richter); Tu és a terra by Ólafur Arnalds