2026

After a year during which we proposed to think under the motto “_The world is the home of the body_”, taking up ideas from the context of immigrant communities in Portugal, along with other interculturalities running through the whole season, it was now urgent to think where we should direct the various paths we had opened up and, with them, to reflect on the essence of what is passed on, that unique gesture between the one who hands on and the one who receives. 

While it is true that every path brings us closer to the place we’re heading to, it is no less true that, as we move on, we stray further from our starting place. On the other hand, since those who leave aren’t always the same who arrive, the path presupposes a transmission process. Perhaps reflecting a time when we are celebrating 50 years of freedom against a growing tendency towards collective amnesia, which tendency reduces more and more the momentum of that first step, we ended 2024 with a renewed awareness of the necessity of making the past known, revisiting it and reading it anew. In this exercise of knowing and recognizing through the action of those who came before us lies a powerful driving force, capable of defending and furthering the civilizational conquests made throughout the ages.

In 1884, the ground we now stand on was home to Real Ginásio Clube Português, which remained here for about a century, before the arrival of Companhia Nacional de Bailado (the National Ballet of Portugal), which grew and established itself over three decades. In this space, a space for the practice of the body, we want to acknowledge the founding movement that preceded us in partnership with the current **Ginásio Clube Português** (Portuguese Gym Club) by bringing to light archive pictures of those pioneering athletes who sought physical excellence in this very place and, without realizing it, paved the way for a democratic and free access to these institutions. With that in mind, we will present each activity and idea included in our 2025 season through the distant, moving bodies of those pioneers, confirming that the determination to exceed oneself is timeless and inherent to the human condition.

The present is not an objective matter, and even less so is the past, which we perceive through written and oral transmissions. It is from this perception that we create the various narratives which shape what we think individually and collectively. And from this very subjectivity arises a need for revisiting places, events and characters that make up our historical narratives, as we see them in the light of the present.

Aiming to strengthen the collaborative spirit in creative processes, we highlight the **Young Composers** Program in this 2025 SEASON, once again coordinated by composer Luís Tinoco, now a Pessoa Prize winner, and co-coordinated by librettist and mezzo-soprano Marcia Belamy, dramaturg Stephan Plaice, and choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes. The program will open up new possibilities for participating creators and performers, crossing over to the artistic areas of composition, writing and choreography. 

Also in January, the piece _Sensorianas_, created by Clara Andermatt and exploring Persian culture, had its premiere as part of this year’s **Other Worlds** Program, focused on Iran in its first edition. After it premiered at Teatro Camões in Lisbon, the piece went on to be performed in Guimarães (as part of the GUIdance – International Contemporary Dance Festival), and it has scheduled performances in Aveiro (Teatro Aveirense), Viseu (Teatro Viriato), and Loulé (Cineteatro Louletano), as part of a series of activities in schools promoted in partnership with the National Arts Plan (PNA). At the same time, Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, our guest artists for the **At Home** Program, will be celebrating 20 years in activity with a program that gives prominence to the proposed theme, occupying the EVC’s studios, corridors, foyer, rooms, floors, and corners throughout the whole year.

Carlota Lagido will be back in February, with a new curatorial proposal for the cycle of **Exhibitions** _cérebro, olhos, mãos e papel_, taking place during the year in the EVC’s foyer. In this context, we will welcome projects by dance artists with a connection to the visual arts, such as Flávio Rodrigues, Miguel Bonneville, and Ana Caetano.

Throughout the year, we will once again host dance artists as part of our **Artist Residencies** Program, as well as artists or artist collectives participating in dance festivals as part of our **In Transit** Program. Daily and complementary practice for dance professionals will also take place over the course of the year, under Tiago Martins, in April, as part of the **EVC Training** Program, and under Pedro Ramos and João Cardoso, in September, after the summer period, as part of the **Kick-Off ’25** Program.

With International Dance Day comes the **Dancing the World** Program in partnership with Observatório do Mundo Islâmico (Islamic World Observatory), which brings us different dances practiced in social meetings. It is a space to learn about — and dance to the rhythm of — other cultures with which we have always interacted. 

Now in its eighth edition, we return to the **Territory** Program, a career launch program for young dancers from dance schools across the country. This year, we are presented with a new creation by choreographer Nadav Zelner and a new piece by choreographer Marco Goecke. As a result of the partnership between the EVC and the Nederlands Dans Theater, Territory will be entering a new cycle, featuring artistic development programs and providing young dancers with a multidisciplinary experience. In 2025, we are also launching similar programs in partnership with Companhia Nacional de Bailado, thus establishing a networking platform between renowned institutions and aspiring young artists.

On this journey of revisiting the past and seeing it through a different worldview, we host the seventh edition of **Meetings for the Future** in October, featuring Joana Craveiro's Performative Conference _Que bem posso escusar trazer escrito em papel o que na alma andar devia_, about that argonaut called Luís de Camões. This edition will be part of a cycle of activities in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Camões’ birth.

During the last trimester of 2025, we will host **Words and Practices**, a program about the action behind a gesture of transmission and reflection. In this first edition, we welcome choreographer and dancer Marco da Silva Ferreira. Over the course of one day structured with both a practical and a theoretical component, participants will have the opportunity to experience creative processes, bringing the artistic community and the general public closer together. In partnership with the National Arts Plan (PNA), we are also launching the initiative **Artist-in-Residence**, bringing to public schools two choreographers who participated in the Young Composers Program in 2024: Beatriz Valentim and Joana Franco. 

Finally, the **PALOP 25** Program is organized around two main axes. The first one comprises artist residencies, training, and project development in a new collaboration with Ordem do Ó, and is aimed at dance artists from Guinea-Bissau. The second comprises meetings and project development in collaboration with artist David Marques, and is aimed at choreographers from Mozambique. With this program, we extend the series of collaborations we have had since 2020 with Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa.

Grateful to all our partners and to everyone who will join us here at the EVC throughout the year, I conclude with the same words from 2024:

_We launch this season knowing that the path can shape our intentions, making it more suited to the needs of those who can benefit from it. And while it is true that not all projects will reach the point where we initially imagined them, when driven by a creative and conciliatory spirit they will certainly bring about change._

This is where we propose to meet: on the ground we walk on.

Rui Lopes Graça,
February 2025

2025 SEASON ⏤ On the ground we walk on

###### Daily practice for professionals

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)

###### Classical dance classes for adults

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)

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

Daily Classes ⎯ April

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ April

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ May

Daily Classes ⎯ May

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ June

Daily Classes ⎯ June

Daily Classes ⎯ July

Dance Classes for Adults — September

Daily Classes ⎯ September

Dance Classes for Adults — October

Daily Classes ⎯ October

Dance Classes for Adults — November

Daily Classes ⎯ November

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. No level of experience is required to participate. The difficulty is adapted to each group of participants, with two levels available: Beginner (Mondays) and Continuing (Wednesday).

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

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

Dance Classes for Adults — December

Our daily practice classes are designed for professional dancers or those in the process of becoming professional dancers; prior knowledge and experience of the classical and contemporary dance vocabulary is therefore expected.

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

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

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

Daily Practice ⎯ December

Daily classical and contemporary dance practice designed for professional dancers and those in the process of becoming professional dancers. The diversity of the teachers' proposals is intended to mirror our approach to what a dance practice can be today. The monthly schedule of daily practices is available in the schedule.

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

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

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


Dance Classes ⏤ Professionals

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. The monthly schedule of these practices is available in the monthly schedule.


###### Classical Dance
Mondays and Wednesdays: 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

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

Dance Classes ⏤ Adults

###### Daily practice for professionals

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)

###### Classical dance classes for adults

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.

No level of experience is required to participate in the Classical Dance Classes for Adults. The difficulty is adapted to each group of participants, with two levels available: Beginner (Mondays) and Continuing (Wednesday).

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

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

Dance Classes at Estúdio 1 — 2026

Dance Classes at Estúdio 1

With the aim of bringing the migrant communities residing in Portugal into institutional spaces, we launch the first edition of the **Dancing the World** program, which brings to the EVC dances shared in social meetings, from different cultures and traditions. Open to everyone, the initiative meets one of this season’s main objectives, namely, that of integrating communities in moments of sharing and interaction.

The initiative will take place on International Dance Day, April 29th, and it is organized in collaboration with ACV - Associação Caboverdeana.

With the aim of bringing the migrant communities residing in Portugal into institutional spaces, we launch the first edition of the Dancing the World Program, which brings to the EVC dances shared in social meetings, from different cultures and traditions.

The first action will take place on International Dance Day, April 29th, and it is organized in collaboration with ACV — Associação Caboverdeana. The dance starts at 6:30pm, with the presence of instructor Zeca Cardoso, who will invite participants to learn the basic steps of Colá San Jon and Funaná.

##### **Colá San Jon**
Colá San Jon, literally “Acclaiming Saint John”, is a cultural expression of Cape Verdean dance and identity which brings together thousands of people in a great religious festival filled with the powerful sound of drums, vibrant colors, dancing, and joy, as Saint John—the most widely celebrated saint in Cape Verde—is carried in the arms of the people. The parades include the _coladeiras_, who dance frenetically in pairs, performing rhythmic movements to the beat of the drums, and the _capatazes_, who keep the dance in order using whistles and coordinate the switching of dance partners.

##### **Funaná**
Funaná is a traditional Cape Verdean dance accompanied by the musical genre of the same name, played primarily with an accordion and a metal scraper (_ferro_) and in a binary rhythm, similar to merengue. It is a cultural expression that reflects the everyday lifestyle of Cape Verdeans, a vibrant partner dance performed at all kinds of celebrations. It is the most widely danced Cape Verdean traditional dance in the world.

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This class-format event is free and open to everyone, regardless of their dance experience. Prior registration is required and can be completed through the form available on this page.

See you there!

World Dance Day ⏤ 2025

With the aim of inviting the migrant communities residing in Portugal into institutional spaces, we return with the second edition of the Dancing the World program, which brings to the EVC dances shared in social meetings, from different cultures and traditions. Open to everyone, the initiative meets one of this season’s main objectives, namely, that of integrating communities in moments of sharing and interaction.

Dancing the World — 2026

Dancing the World

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

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_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

_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

1.    _agonia no jardim_ [“agony in the garden”] marks bonneville’s debut in the world of ceramics—a practice he began after quitting his trajectory in the performing arts. this exhibition sets the beginning of the serial project _animais paisanges e santos_ [“animals landscapes and saints”], which investigates the lives and legacies of different saints, while exploring the intersections between the study of mysticism, the relations between human and non-human animals, and the tensions between civilization and nature.

2.    “love brought forth the world, friendship will bring it forth again.” — hölderlin, _hyperion; or, the hermit in greece_

3.    constantly seeking to enlarge his vocabulary beyond the expected, beyond what he was taught, bonneville seeks not to restrain language, allowing it to create new worlds. for him, obligation and imagination are on opposite sides. he took up ceramics out of sheer interest and curiosity, with no purpose beyond the practice itself. this brought him here, without his planning it. it was easy. it happened. he allowed himself to become available again to the sensible world, to matter—and matter answered. he reopened to the vast realm of the erotic.

4.    in the agony in the garden episode, christ experiences a moment of extreme vulnerability. he knows what awaits him—prison, violence, abandonment—and he asks his friends to stay awake with him. this plea is in truth an appeal to them to be present and comfort him—friendship is presented as companionship in suffering. he doesn’t ask them to save him nor to do anything heroic—he simply asks them to _be there_. even so, they fall asleep. this failure is not a betrayal, but rather a human weakness: it is difficult to truly accompany the suffering of others. it is difficult to simply be there when there are no words, no solutions, no easy promises. 

5.    both realities—friendship in hard times and the discovery of new possibilities not entailing a sacrifice—are part of _agonia no jardim_. in moments when everything becomes unbearable, some stay. not to offer a way out, but to watch, to listen, to witness. then there’s the time when nothing is to be expected anymore. and it is in this very moment that one begins anew. the gesture serves no purpose but its own—the pleasure of doing without asking permission. without planning. without expecting to go back. this exhibition begins from that place: where the end of a path makes way for a different kind of presence—less directed and, perhaps for this very reason, more alive.
____

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For any additional information regarding the pieces, you may contact the artist directly through his email address: office@miguelbonneville.com

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**Acknowledgments**: ó cerâmica, livraria aberta, o lugar do meio, teatro do silêncio, maria teresa oliveira, ricardo costa, sofia dinger.

Agonia no jardim — Miguel Bonneville

In _DESENHO.MÚSICA.CORPO_, dancer and artist Ana Caetano proposes a territory where gesture becomes drawing and drawing becomes memory of movement. In a dialogue with music and silence, the drawing body improvises its reaction, leaving on the sheet of paper the visible traces of an ephemeral experience.

Each stroke is born of an attentive act of listening, of the intensity and delicacy of the body in action. This project presents the drawings as art works and includes improvisational performances, where invited musicians create live music while Ana draws. A space for a sensory and intuitive encounter is thus opened, where sound, body, and stroke intertwine in an unrepeatable dialogue.

Amid exhibitions, performances, schools, festivals, and cultural meetings, _DESENHO.MÚSICA.CORPO_ asserts itself as a work that simultaneously inhabits the realms of visual art and performance, bringing to the light both the experienced instant and its materialization in drawings.

This exhibition includes the participation of musician Ruca Rebordão.

DESENHO.MÚSICA.CORPO — Ana Caetano

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 two editions curated by Carlota Lagido, during which we welcomed works by Luís Guerra, João Galante, Elizabete Francisca, Flávio Rodrigues, Miguel Bonneville and Ana Caetano, this year we hold _Arte Mágica_ (“Magical Art”), a third series of exhibitions curated by Luís Guerra in partnership with the dance company Dançando com a Diferença.

There are stories that begin quietly but become transformative along the way. Such was the case with Dançando com a Diferença, founded by Henrique Amoedo in 2001, in Madeira, as a pilot project which later became a benchmark in the contemporary dance scene, both nationally and internationally. Over the course of 25 years, the company has built a unique career, collaborating with renowned choreographers and developing new forms of interaction between performer, body and space.

In the context of the 2026 Exhibitions Program, the EVC and artist Luís Guerra challenge performers from this company with unique cognitive and physical characteristics to explore a process of visual creation starting from the concept of “outsider art” and evolving into “Magical Art”. In two different periods, works created by six to eight performers and characterized by unusual rhythmical choices and formal solutions, as well as by a profusion of visual elements, will be showing at the EVC’s Foyer. These works offer the public a sensory and reflective experience, transporting them to territories of the spirit rarely accessible through normative artistic practices, and reasserting both the singularity of the company’s work and the creative potential of each performer.

On the occasion of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of Dançando com a Diferença Association.

Exhibitions — 2026

Exhibitions — 2025

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_ ["At Arm’s Length"], 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. Then, on 17th of June, at an event we are calling **CONFLUÊNCIAS** ["Confluences"], we're going to show these archival materials more clearly through an installation in the EVC Bar and share with you, in Estúdio 1, the result of a research laboratory on different performative devices and/or materials from some of our shows and processes._

_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 

Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz is a structure funded by the Portuguese Republic - Culture I DGARTES - Directorate-General for the Arts and Lisbon City Council.

_How can we make visible the invisible connections between the observer's body and the observed artwork? How can we describe these connections and make them manifest through movement, gesture, and word? How can we bring onto the same plane the represented “past” and the “present” of each visitor?_

_À distância de um braço_ ["At arm's length"] is a performance that calls for an intimate relationship with some of the most iconic works at the MNAA (National Museum of Ancient Art), where gesture and word seek to reveal the invisible connections between the body of the observer and the artwork being observed, but gazing back at us in turn. What if, during a visit to the museum, someone drew our attention to the resemblance between a detail of our own face and a feature in one of the paintings on display? And what if, from that connection between the painting and our body, a back-and-forth emerged — of gestures and words — between the painting’s characteristics — its implicit movement, its history — and our condition as visitors?

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**Direction, choreography, and text** | Sofia Dias & Vitor Roriz

**Performed by** | Francisca Pinto, Noah Rees, S&V

**Costumes** | José António Tenente

**Sound** | Sofia Dias

**Sound operation** | Tiago Cerqueira

**SD&VR administration** | Cátia Mateus

**Production** | SD&VR Lda

**Support** | Estúdios Vítor Córdon

À distância de um braço — Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

_Da desordem das paixões_ ["On the Disarray of the Passions"] is the title of one of the projects developed by Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz as part of the At Home Program. With a focus on the Baroque, specifically on the connection between dance and music that characterizes this period, this project will be co-created with the music group Músicos do Tejo, and will premiere in 2026.

Da desordem das paixões — Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

On the 17th of June, around 6:30pm, we welcome _Confluências_, by Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, an attempt to reconcile three different projects: _Dispositivos_, created for TBA in 2020; _Instalação_ ("Installation"), which occupied part of the CCU — Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in 2023; and the project _Arrumar a Casa_, which started this year at the EVC and in which the artists seek to sort out their 20-year archive. _Confluências_ is a type of performance, installation, and “open” archive where the artists test different ways of presenting their work, while also looking for clues for future research. In this event, visitors can freely move around the Bar and Estúdio 1 at the EVC building and watch a series of movement and text research pieces, performed by seven artists collaborating with the duo. While wandering around, visitors will find different scenographic objects from the performances, as well as videos, music, and podcasts produced in recent years and rarely shown to the audience. The event will also feature a set of reading, drawing, and writing exercises that are usually part of the duo's workshops, and which were systrmarized under the concept of simultaneity, as well as some “finds” from their archive—photographs, rehearsal videos and other materials—timidly placed in the nooks and crannies of the EVC. 

Confluências — Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

Seven years after _O que não acontece_, Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz return to the duet, the format that best reflects both their artistic complicity and the intensity of a collaboration spanning nearly two decades. Their duets appear as intimate moments of sharing with the audience—of sharing states of presence, perspectives on the world, on what it means to live, to destroy and to build with another.

In this new duet, _O que se abre em nós_, the choreographic, sound and textual materials arise from Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz' research on the struggle between the banality of everyday life and the intensity of the stage. Featuring songs from past creations and personal archive materials, the piece situates itself somewhere between a bizarre musical, a conversation, and a dance that resists being named. Sofia and Vítor contemplate what they have made, they reinvent their past and test new ways of being together. From their shared history, they make their dependence on the stage a vanishing point for reflecting on what it means to go on. And to go on together.

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###### Artistic and technical credits

**Concept and performance** | Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz
**Lighting design** | Nuno Borda de Água
**Text** | Tiago Rodrigues, Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz
**Sound design** | Sofia Dias
**Artistic collaborators** | Filipe Pereira and Catarina Dias
**Production** | SD&VR, Lda.
**Co-production** | Alkantara, Galeria Zé dos Bois
**Support** | Estúdios Victor Córdon (as part of the At Home program)
**Management** | SD&VR, Cátia Mateus 

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**Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz is a structure funded by the Portuguese Republic — Culture I DGARTES and Câmara Municipal de Lisboa.**

O que se abre em nós — Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

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

##### _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

At Home is a program designed for creators working in the field of dance, inviting them into the EVC to develop their work over the course of a season. Having welcomed Miguel Moreira, João dos Santos Martins, Jonas & Lander, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Teresa Silva, Victor Hugo Pontes, and Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, we now invite Daniel Matos, who will be sharing with us a series of initiatives that characterize his unique career.

_Busting down the door, opening the windows, rummaging through drawers, scrubbing linoleum with your hands, licking banisters, falling backwards down the stairs, getting stuck in the lift, singing in the lift while you're stuck, taking hot showers in winter and cold showers in summer, shouting at the draughts and staring endlessly at the river._

_They welcome me HOME this year, and being at home, for me, means being alone - very alone - and accompanied - as accompanied as possible._

_I have always enjoyed being home alone, being able to play different music in each room, walking with the lights off and feeling my way through the corridors at night, finding comfort in the silence like a cosy blanket and, above all, having the space and time to think about what I do or try to do. That is why, throughout this year, I have been dedicating myself to two authorial projects that branch out into different ways of thinking and making possible dances: **A Luminosa Violência da Perfeição**, a large-scale stage creation that seeks to understand how to contemplate an absolute pause in the middle of a hurricane driven by horses and mares, and **PESO PESO PEITO**, an authorial publication in collaboration with artist João Catarino, which starts from the play Pedra, a Mágoa (The Stone, the Sorrow) and explores in book form the family relationships of the performers who were part of the processes of creating and presenting the show, delving into photographic and written landscapes of each person's intimacy, compiled in a physical archive collection._

_But being AT HOME also means welcoming people into your home and making it a space for sharing and socialising, for dinners filled with thoughts and ideas that don't fit inside living rooms. That is why I invite some of the artists I admire to share proposals and practices in this AT HOME, clearing the space, pushing the furniture against the wall and joining hands so that we can all feel butterflies in our stomachs together: from jams to music listening, from conversations around the table to a film session that can be a pyjama party, if we so desire._

_All this while always opening the door to anyone who wants to come in, take a peek, stay and leave. All this so that the occupation is as real as we are, who do not exist, if we want to.
Being a body at home in a house that is the body._

_It's so good to be AT HOME._

Daniel Matos


At Home ⏤ Daniel Matos

At Home ⏤ Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

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.

The EVC Training Program is a complementary intensive training program for dance artists that offers 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 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, Movement Practice 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

EVC TRAINING 2025 | Complementary Training

Intensive and complementary KOVA training for dance professionals. KOVA is the language, practice and composition tool developed by the choreographer Marcos Morau, in which the focus of the movement is not so much the contact with emotions and feelings but a deep connection with the body and the search for shapes and volumes. 

Marcos Morau created in 2005 the company La Veronal, a collective of artists from dance, cinema, literature, and photography. His training and the tools he uses to develop his work are not limited to dance, extending to artistic disciplines such as photography and theater. 


###### Target Audience
Dance professionals

###### Price ⎯ 200€

###### GDA scholarships available

###### Limit of 30 participants

###### Online registration

EVC Training 2023

Complementary intensive training for professional dancers that gives them the opportunity to explore the fundamental languages of contemporary dance, this year focusing on the artistic language of Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite.

###### Target Audience
Dance professionals

###### Price ⎯ 200€

###### GDA grants available

###### Online registration




EVC Training 2024

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. The 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.

### _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 stimulates the practice of a playful body, one that enjoys moving energetically. The practice itself begins with shared or individual “body reset” moments, whether through breathing exercises, by exploring fatigue or by improvising from points of contact. On the one hand, the practice evolves into movement research patterns, focusing on touch as a tool to awaken forgotten parts of the body. On the other hand, it is developed through a set of floorwork techniques, bringing awareness to transitions between horizontal and vertical settings and challenging the concept of a “collective mind”. Sprinkled with touches of expressive drama, this practice is an invitation to participants to develop bodies and minds that are capable, gentle, humble, curious, aware, and intimately connected to the sheer pleasure of dancing and moving.

EVC Training — 2026

EVC Training — 2025

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.


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 the cultural association Rede More, 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

Presented as part of our In Transit Program, this project reflects on the theme of the forest and our connection to it. Taking a short story by Tatiana Salem Levy as a starting point (viz. _Curupira Pirapora_, edited by Tinta da China, 2021), Mente de Cão (a physical theater company) and Baileia (a cultural association that works on music and movement with children) will work together to research and create a piece on curiosity, wisdom, and tenderness towards the countless diversities that bring life to these forests.

_“Faced with so many catastrophes that paralyze us, render us speechless, haunt us, faced with what we call the destruction of forests, what can we do? Is it too late for us to meet our diversities? To assimilate different ways of feeling-acting, and to re-cognize other world histories? “Curupira” is the being that protects, that defends forests and invites us to confront the urgency of wildlife and to practice a constant co-creation of worlds which may shelter our differences, interculturalities, languages, and ways of communication. In an immersive environment, we are guided through a story where various tensions come into play: sound and silence, light and shadow, language and reality.”_

Curupira Ternura Selvagem — Baileia and Mente de Cão

Through the languages of dance/movement and spoken word, Christina Elias’ performance, _Blindfolded Society_, shares a critical view of contemporary society, bringing attention to the social and moral blindness brought on by an unbridled capitalist system. Loosely inspired by José Saramago’s novel _Blindness_, Christina Elias, blindfolded, creates in real time a narrative consisting of movement and text, a dialogue with sound extracts from Saramago’s novel which are projected into space. Blindness is a powerful metaphor (and maybe the only key) to help us understand our present society, in which the incapacity to see isn’t physical, but rather moral and ethical. In _Blindfolded Society_, Elias incarnates a blindfolded society put up for sale. Routines, privacies, intimacies, the body, beliefs, and even the soul—are all for sale. By using blindness as a metaphor to explore moral and ethical neglect, this performance criticizes the commodification of individuals, communities, and the environment in contemporary capitalist societies, stressing the invisible suffering and exploitation.

_Blindfolded Society_ will be performed at the 2025 Biennial Performative Arts Meeting – (Re)union organized by REDE MORE, one of our partners of this year's In Transit Program.

Blindfolded Society — Christina Elias

Appealing to the primordial bond between dance and music, four pairs of performers and instrumentalists are brought together in this project to conceive and present a series of ‘planned improvisations’. This is a proposal that places the performer at the centre of the creative process and seeks to capture the moment before the creative material is fixed—a space full of digressions, nuances, and paths to be paved.

'Duplas' is a series of four dialogues between one person who plays and another who dances, giving us a glimpse of different possible relationships between movement and music, calling on a diversity of styles ranging from baroque to experimental music. We can watch these four duets on a late afternoon on May 22, in Jardim da Estrela, as part of the Cumplicidades Festival, one of the EVC's partner festivals for this year's edition of the In Transit Program.

Duplas — A dialogue between movement and music

In the heyday of the DISCOTHÈQUE, the hearts of Latino and African-American immigrants, whether they were WHOLE or BROKEN, shared a hopeful 70s GLAMOUR LOOP. All of them died. This is a war. Miss Universe seeks refuge in Copacabana in a bunker that was once a disco during the time of fascism, where she finds gay ghosts.

Drawing from a real archive—her uncle Richard Wagner’s—which blends with fiction, Diego Bragà creates _A GENTE NA BOATE SOFRE JUNTO_, a “hyperpÓpera” where the bunker becomes a ghostly and utopian disco, reinterpreting homoerotic themes from an androgynous and transfeminist perspective. A theatrical and operatic gesture that embraces suffering and opens the path for a new future.

The premiere will take place at O Espaço do Tempo, as part of the O Espaço do Tempo Creation Grant, with the support of BPI and the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, in November 2025.

A Gente na boate sofre junto — Diego Bragà

_"VORACE" means "voracious" in Italian._
_"VORACE" is a solo about a body, its rescue, and its desire._
_I look for a place that is free, viscerally erotic and democratic. How to be a body that I really want to be and which goes beyond this one that I'm allowed to occupy?_
_I try to shake (myself)._

— Sofia Kafol

VORACE — Sofia Kafol

Eight people embark on a long journey on foot. We know neither where they came from nor where they're headed to. They are traveling to escape an impending catastrophe. In this resilient, stubborn, circular walk, they make space for the imagination and for wonderment, like artists from a decadent circus who are melancholy but full of hope. And they sing.

They sing to scare their evils away, to lighten their burden. They sing because cicadas sing. They sing just as Gal Costa sings in her album _Cantar_ ["Singing"], released in 1974 at the height of the military dictatorship in Brazil. A song that is a cry for freedom in times of war, religious intolerance, and violence, when societies and their states attempt a return to authoritarian policies of silencing and killing. They sing as a form of resistance. They will keep singing even if the circus loses its big top, even if seas flood cities, even if humanity unlearns how to love.

According to Greek mythology, 12 light-years away from the Earth, on Tau Ceti (a star in the constellation Cetus), there is a miraculous medicine that can cure human sadness. Perhaps that's where they're headed to.

CANTAR — Francisco T. Cavalcanti & um cavalo disse mamãe

 _Sonho de Dama_ is Marga Alfeirão's third dance piece — it is a mission to rescue lost dreams. Performed by a quartet — Nafi (Gambia/Berlin), Juliana Braga (Brazil/Portugal), Rosy Timas (Cape Verde/Santiago), and Caroline Nevejan (Netherlands) —, the piece intends to create a space where dreams once dreamt by women connect with those of today. It explores the relevance of older women's dreams and it shows how passing them on to younger women both preserves and strengthens intimacy across generations.

Sonho de Dama — Marga Alfeirão

**_Square Dance_** (working title) is a project that questions the notion and embodiment of "spirit" as a measure of depth in performance. Turning to the 1970’s northern soul movement as a physicality that fosters reflection, the project explores modes of embodiment through a persistent and evocative relationship to music and dance.

Square Dance (working title) — Connor Scott

_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

Through the _In Transit_ Program, the EVC establish partnerships with numerous 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, we contribute to their strengthening 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 programmes. 

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


In Transit 2024

In Transit — 2026

In Transit — 2025

The previous editions of Meetings for the Future have explored various themes and formats. In this edition, keeping in mind the key idea of transmission, the necessity arises of revisiting places, events, and characters that make up our historical narratives, seeing them in the light of the present. Between fact and expectation, we embark on a performative conference on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Luís de Camões by Joana Craveiro, featuring dancers from countries on this well-known argonaut’s route.

#### _que bem posso escusar trazer escrito em papel o que na alma andar devia_
[“I may well forgo carrying on paper what within my soul should dwell”]

**created and authored by** Joana Craveiro

In this performative conference, Joana Craveiro and the multidisciplinary team from Teatro do Vestido set out to confront the life and work of Luís de Camões, troubadour and argonaut, the great Portuguese poet whose work will be revisited and read anew from a 21st-century perspective. The feats he describes, the adjectives he chooses to describe the encounter (or rather, the confrontation?) of cultures, his view of empires, the politics and ideology hidden or revealed in his words, his lyric poems, and love as sung by the Poet, are the threads from which this work of creative reflection will be woven. Also drawing on the ideas of travel and diaspora, this performative conference will feature dancers from the African and the Asian continents, seeking to trace signs of these cultures in their bodies and movements, and critically deconstructing Luís de Camões’ work in its relation to these bodies in space. This performative conference brings his work into dialogue with Edward Said’s thought as articulated in his book _Orientalism: Western Concepts of the Orient_, as well as with the thought of John Berger, Arundhati Roy, Sanjay Seth, among others, aiming for a poetic-political approach to his imaginary and literary universe.

This program’s edition is part of the commemorations of Luís de Camões’ 500th anniversary.

Teatro do Vestido is a structure supported by República Portuguesa - Cultura, Juventude e Desporto | DGARTES.

[[Reservation form]](https://shorturl.at/Py4Kk)
October 3 and 10 — 7 p.m
October 4 and 11 — 5 p.m.

Between fact and expectation, in this 7th edition of the Meetings for the Future Program and on the occasion of Luís de Camões' 500th anniversary, we embark on a performative conference featuring performers from countries that were on this well-known argonaut's route.

The work of Luís de Camões will be read anew from a 21st-century perspective. The feats he describes, the adjectives he chooses to describe the meeting (or rather, the confrontation?) of cultures, the vision of empires, the politics and ideology hidden or revealed in his poems—these are the threads from which a creative work of revisitation and deconstruction of the past will be woven.

Teatro do Vestido is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports | DGARTES.

© Estelle Valente | EVC 2025

que bem posso escusar trazer escrito em papel o que na alma andar devia

A series of meetings focusing on the reality of migrant communities living in Portugal and the role of culture in their path to become fully integrated into society. This year, the program will unfold over three weeks, in the form of three talks that will help bring to light different realities present in our society, but not properly acknowledged. 

###### Pari passu
##### _“On the flying carpet, facing Mecca,_
##### _I have but one certainty: my I is You”_ — Muhammad Rashid

At the invitation of Estúdios Victor Córdon, Teatro Praga proposes the series of meetings “Pari passu”, dedicated to the acknowledgement of migrant artists and various aspects of their cultures, which, although present in the public sphere, are still made invisible by multiple social factors. In this first series, dedicated to Islam, “Pari passu” will offer a talk and a lecture on each of three Saturdays in November, with the presence of guests with knowledge of Islam. The TALKS will deal with the relationship between Islamic art and tradition, the presence of Islamic art in the Portuguese public sphere, and contemporary Islamic art. The three LECTURES will be an attempt to bring us closer to Islamic art and culture in three ways: religion and culture; the historical presence of Islam in Portugal; and the Quran. On the afternoons, you will also be able to watch or take part in RECREATIONAL PRACTICE moments of dancing and music, while enjoying – _pari passu_ – food, books and much more at the LITTLE MARKET.

What good is it to know the past without acknowledging the present, thus compromising possibilities for the future? In recent years we have witnessed, both in politics and in dance, the celebration of a historical systematization without critical positioning and filtered by a hierarchy of values that often prevents the acknowledgement of the diverse and vague contemporaneity.

Cultures evolve with migrant communities and various forms of knowledge. Who was Herculano Mercês? Who sewed Almada’s clothes? These questions are just as important as: When was the last time you saw someone dancing an Iranian dance? Wasn't it yesterday, right next to your house? How many steps took someone who couldn't take steps?                                                                                

“Pari passu” is a space for the acknowledgement of Islam today, weakening the mythification of the past and looking particularity in the eye.

###### Dates
##### 2nd, 9th, 16th November, from 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm.
##### 2:30 pm — Lecture (1h)
##### 4 pm — Practice (40min)
##### 5 pm — Talk (1h + Q&A)

Meetings for the Future VI

In previous editions of the Meetings for the Future Program, various themes and formats have already been explored. In this edition, we go back to the performative conference format with the aim of fostering thought, speech, and practice, promoting meetings between artists, and between artists and the public. The focus will be on the art scene of Mozambique in dialogue with Portugal, with dancers from Mozambique and Portugal being featured in a new edition of David Marques and Teresa Silva’s _Fazer falar o fazer_ (“Making the making speak”), a project presented in 2024 as part of the At Home Program with Teresa Silva.

_“Throughout our careers, we have felt a lack of occasions that encourage reflection and speech about artistic practice, and we have noticed how scarce the records are which can document what artists like us are doing and make it more lasting and geographically widespread._ Fazer falar o fazer _thus arises from the will to let the work of our generation claim a place of its own, and from the desire to bring the community together around the issues that move and engage us in our artistic practice, which we believe to be a source of fundamental knowledge. In this context, we have been developing various devices that encourage thinking, speaking, and listening, and which provide the meeting between artists and between artists and the public.”_

Teresa Silva and David Marques


Meetings for the Future VIII

Meetings for the Future VII 

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

_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.

_Sparkling Imagination_, with Horácio Macuacua

In this practice there is a highly physical work that demands attention and intensity rather than a certain level of technique, challenging each dancer to push the limits of their imagination and body expression to discover new possibilities.  The inflexibility of the established paralyzes the movement, dims the ingenuity, casts a shadow over surprise. But life force makes us adaptable, it gives us the opportunity to transform space and to translate energy into matter, matter into its own evolution. The outline of the spontaneous is blurred to disappear, the margins of the predictable are softened and we know the interrogation point that questions the automatic response. The body allows us to transcend. Let's dance.

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 | 1-5 september**

**11:30am—2:00pm _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.

**3:00pm—6:00pm _Sparkling Imagination_, with Horácio Macuacua**

In this practice there is a highly physical work that demands attention and intensity rather than a certain level of technique, challenging each dancer to push the limits of their imagination and body expression to discover new possibilities.  The inflexibility of the established paralyzes the movement, dims the ingenuity, casts a shadow over surprise. But life force makes us adaptable, it gives us the opportunity to transform space and to translate energy into matter, matter into its own evolution. The outline of the spontaneous is blurred to disappear, the margins of the predictable are softened and we know the interrogation point that questions the automatic response. The body allows us to transcend. Let's dance.

###### Target audience: dance artists

###### GDA Scholarships available

###### Price

GDA Cooperator artist = 70€ (11 grants available)   

GDA Non-Cooperator artist  = 130€ (13 grants available)

Full price w/out grant = 220€

###### Insurance required

KICK OFF'25 | REGISTRATION

A one-week program dedicated to dance practice for professionals that proposes an intensive training in the restart of activities after the summer season. 

This year we will welcome the prestigious Belgian company Peeping Tom, founded by Gabriela Carrizo (Argentina) and Franck Chartier (France).

Brandon Lagaert joined Peeping Tom in 2013 for the creation of _Vader_, and has also created _Moeder_, _Kind_, _Dido & Aeneas_ and _La Visita_. It is at the company that he has crafted his signature style as a multidisciplinary performer.

In his work, Brandon combines elements from different disciplines, such as urban and contemporary dance, theatre, and film. As a director, he often starts from the perspective of a performer to lay down a certain foundation, before tackling the overall structure. He does this under the name of his company KAIHO of which the award-winning performances Subdued and Mondo Fuso have been an integral part.


###### Target Audience
Dance professionals

###### Price
220€

###### GDA Scholarships
GDA Cooperators ⎯ 70€ (amount to be paid by the cooperator) 
> Non GDA Cooperators ⎯ 130€ (amount to be paid by the non cooperator)

> _(GDA Grants are assigned in order of registration confirmation)_

###### Limit of 20 participants

###### Personal accident insurance is required

KICK OFF'23 

One-week program for dance professionals proposing intensive dance training at the "rentrée" right after summer holidays, this year diving into the artistic universe of Akram Khan.

###### Target Audience
Dance professionals

###### Price
220€

###### This program has the support of GDA Foundation

###### Online registration

###### Personal accident insurance is required








KICK OFF'24

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. The 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 ’26

One-week program for dance professionals proposing intensive dance training at the "rentrée" right after summer holidays.

### _KICK IN_, with Lander Patrick

_“In this edition of the Kick Off Program, apart from visiting previous repertories, we will approach musicality as the spark that ignites gestures. As we study rhythms, melodies, dynamics, we will transfer this knowledge to our muscles, nerves, eyes and teeth, placing the body in a symphonic field. Bringing it together with other symphonic bodies, we will study interaction strategies — exercises that strengthen camaraderie and collective spirit, fundamental bases of my work. Let’s sweat together!”_ 

— Lander Patrick


Kick Off ’26

Kick Off ’25

###### Support for Auditions

The Support for Auditions Program continues to provide artists with the necessary conditions to participate in selection processes for training programs or casts. Thus, the studios open their doors to performers who need a space to record audiovisual materials for auditions or academic tests. Applications can be submitted online on our website throughout the year.

###### Support for Dance Education Institutions

We open our doors to universities and other higher education institutions in some of our training programs. With this initiative, we aim to consolidate the relationships established with these institutions for the benefit of new generations of dance artists.

###### **partners** Escola Superior de Dança (ESD) — Master’s Degree in Choreographic Creation and Professional Practices (modules 4 and 6) | Forum Dança — PACAP (intensive module)

###### Support for Auditions

The Support for Auditions Program continues to provide artists with the necessary conditions to participate in selection processes for training programs or casts. Thus, the studios open their doors to performers who need a space to record audiovisual materials for auditions or academic tests. Applications can be submitted online on our website throughout the year.

###### Support for Dance Education Institutions

We open our doors to universities and other higher education institutions in some of our training programs. With this initiative, we aim to consolidate the relationships established with these institutions for the benefit of new generations of dance artists.

Other Supports — 2026

Other Supports

_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, cyclically selecting a country in focus, aims to draw attention to this country's culture from 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.

The program is also included in 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.

Sensorianas will premiere **on January 31, at 8pm, and on February 1, 6:30pm, at Teatro Camões**, in Lisbon.

###### Tickets on sale at [bol.pt](https://www.bol.pt/Comprar/Bilhetes/150094-sensorianas_de_clara_andermatt_accca-t_camoes_e_victor_cordon/)

###### SYNOPSIS

_"I was invited by Estúdios Victor Córdon to explore Iran and its culture through the creation of a piece to be presented within the framework of the OUTROS MUNDOS program. I approached the invitation as a challenge to connect with Persian culture, allowing me to explore and celebrate its richness._

_I want the piece to combine charm and contemplation based on an artistic experience anchored in the contributions of the Iranian diaspora rooted in our country. I aim to pave the thematic path of the piece by compiling individual visions carrying references, suggestions, and avenues for study._
_
I intend to explore different styles of traditional Iranian dance, reinterpreted by myself and the collaborators of this creation in light of contemporary dance. The focus is on the female universe, with Iranian poetry and music, among other elements, serving as integrative and inspiring components._

_I do not seek to encompass the vastness of Persian culture, nor do I have any pretension to represent it—an impossible and undesirable task for someone approaching a vast and complex reality for the first time. I propose a subjective, animated vision fuelled by the desire to promote encounters and build cultural bridges. A curious and interested gaze toward a reality very different from our own. A space for dialogue and reflection on aspects of everyday life, freedom, and the cultural diversity that we must defend and celebrate in the current global context."_

— Clara Andermatt

###### CREDITS
- Artistic Direction | CLARA ANDERMATT
- Performance and Creative Collaboration | BEATRIZ VALENTIM, HELIA BANDEH, LEONOR ALECRIM, MARIA FONSECA, RITA CARPINTEIRO
- Art Consultant | HELIA BANDEH
- Musical Direction | JOÃO LUCAS E CLARA ANDERMATT
- Artistic Assistance and Research | MARGARIDA BAK GORDON
- Creation Support | AMÉLIA BENTES, FÉLIX LOZANO
- Support for Dramaturgy | JOÃO LUCAS
- Lighting Design and Operation | WILMA MOUTINHO
- Set Design | ERIC DA COSTA
- Costume Design | JOSÉ ANTÓNIO TENENTE
- Helia Bandeh's Selection of Costumes created by | HELIA DANCEWEAR
- Costume Design Assistant | RITA MONIZ PEREIRA
- Mirrors | GOLSHAN CHAHIAN
- Sound Design and Operation | RICARDO FIGUEIREDO
- Scenic Space Construction | JOSÉ PEDRO SOUSA
- Executive Production | ACCCA — MIGUEL PEREIRA, RUANA CAROLINA
- Communication Partnership | ANTENA 2, COFFEEPASTE

###### OUTROS MUNDOS, a ESTÚDIOS VICTOR CÓRDON program
- Co-production | OPART / ESTÚDIOS VICTOR CÓRDON, A OFICINA / CCVF
- Residency support | OPART / ESTÚDIOS VICTOR CÓRDON
- Support | REPÚBLICA PORTUGUESA — CULTURA / DIREÇÃO-GERAL DAS ARTES, CÂMARA MUNICIPAL DE LISBOA, INTERPRESS HUB CRIATIVO DO BAIRRO ALTO
- Partnership | PLANO NACIONAL DAS ARTES - INICIATIVA IR À ESCOLA

- Special Thanks | JOÃO BICHÃO,  JOÃO HENRIQUES (Observatório do Mundo Islâmico),  MARTINHO VILLANI, RITA FONTES, SEPIDEH RADFAR, TEATRO DO BAIRRO

- A special thank you to all the Iranian people or people of Iranian origin who told us about themselves, their culture and their country | AIDA SIGHARIAN, GOLSHAN CHAHIAN, HODA MADAD, ISMAIL BOALI, MARYAM SHAMS, MEHRNOOSH AFSHARI, NAHID SANGANIAN, NIKDEL FARHAD, OMID BAHRAMI, RAHMAN HAGHIGHI, REBECCA MORADALIZADEH, ROHAM TORABI, ROUZBEH AKHBARI, SEPIDEH RADFAR, SINA SHIRAZI, SOMAYEH GHOLAMI, VAHID RASOULI

Sensorianas — Premiere at Teatro Camões

Other Worlds is a program dedicated to the representation of migrant communities residing in Portugal in new dance creations. Despite the geographical proximity, these immigrant communities often remain on the margin of the local community’s life and become, by virtue of this isolation, potential focal points of exclusion and targets of social prejudice. By making present in institutional spaces the diverse cultures that make up 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.

Cyclically selecting a country in focus, this program aims to draw attention to this country’s culture from the perspective of dance artists. In its second edition, now under the direction of Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, the focus will be on Afghanistan and Afghan culture. The creation process will extend throughout 2026, with a performance scheduled to premiere in 2027 at Teatro Camões.


Other Worlds — Afghanistan 

Other Worlds ⏤ Iran

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.


The first edition of Palavras e Práticas (Words and Practices), a Program by Estúdios Victor Córdon, 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. 

This year, we welcome choreographer and dancer Marco da Silva Ferreira, who will share some of the foundations of his creative and artistic process, exposing the intersection of styles, techniques and references where body, emotion and community intertwine.

- Practical Component: 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
- Conversation (Moderator: Pedro Mendes / Coffeepaste): 1:15 PM to 2:00 PM

- Program participation costs 15€.

- Personal accident insurance is mandatory. Alternatively, a Liability Waiver will be available. 

Words and Practices — Marco da Silva Ferreira

With the Words and Practices Program, we aim to bring dance artists and the general public closer together. Over the course of one day structured into a practical part and a theoretical part, participants will have the opportunity to experience creation processes and what they are based on, thus helping to deepen readings of the invited artist’s works or performative proposals. Following a first edition of the program that featured Marco da Silva Ferreira, who shared with us the foundations of his creation process, presenting an intersection of styles, techniques and references where body, emotion and community intertwine, this year we welcome choreographer and multidisciplinary artist Tânia Carvalho.

We invite everyone to share in an intuitive process, where creation emerges from the interplay of light and shadow, traversed as it is by psychological, spiritual and oneiric dimensions that manifest themselves in the moving body.

Words and Practices — Tânia Carvalho

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.

After an artistic intervention in which posters displaying questions were put up in the streets and various cultural spaces in Maputo and Mugangueni, in Macaneta, the project _Fazer falar o fazer_ ("Making the making speak") brings together different artists from Mozambique for a five-day meeting organized by David Marques. During this meeting, participants will be experimenting with free speech practices and some performative devices, designed for artistic work in dance.

This meeting anticipates a new edition of David Marques and Teresa Silva's project _Fazer falar o fazer_ with artists from Portugal and Mozambique, coming up in 2026.

This project is part of the EVC's program of activities, in partnership with Parca, Instituto Camões, Mugangueni, and Kinani — Festival Internacional de Dança Contemporânea de Moçambique (International Contemporary Dance Festival of Mozambique).

This event, which includes both a practical class for dancers and dance students and a conversation open to the public, aims to give a window on the great richness of expression of Guinean dances and music and on the ancestral heritage present in them. The techniques, the aesthetics and the cultural contexts of a few of the many dances from the various Bissau-Guinean ethnic groups will be discussed. In a context of sharing and experiencing, under the guidance of **Ernesto Nambera** and the dancers from Grupo de Dança Contemporânea de Guiné-Bissau/Ballet Nacional (GB), we will get to know the inhabited dance as an ancestral, living "archive" of knowledge, where thought and contemporary practices intersect. The conversation will revolve around the echo of lived experience, discourse, knowledge, and the aesthetics that dwell in bodies and voices.

Práticas Ancestrais — Lab

In contrast to the movements of modern societies, which are mechanical but also chaotic and violent, dance attunes us to our complex, poetic biological reality. Dance brings us closer to the natural, the animal and the spiritual. In a dancing body's movements, we can discover a deeper meaning to existence. 

Diving into the ancestrality and the vibrant force of the earth and the people of Guinea-Bissau, this piece explores the human body as a vehicle for attuning oneself to the mystery of a force connected both to nature and to that great body, the world. Co-created along the aesthetic lines of Pedro Ramos, who understands the body as part of the forest and explores deep ecology and alchemy, and Ernesto Nambera, choreographer of Ballet Nacional/Grupo de Dança Contemporânea da Guiné-Bissau, and drawing inspiration from the great richness, expression and ancestral knowledge of Guinea-Bissau, the piece aims to address the ecological, social and political problems of our time, promoting the reestablishment of trust bonds with both outer and inner nature and beating a path of transformation and resignification of our coexistence. Between ancestrality and contemporaneity, between the holistic experience of the body and the emerging concerns of today, _Kurpu di Mundu_ aims to attune us to our biological and spiritual reality, awakening the feeling of belonging and being connected to the earth.

&nbsp;

Ordem do O is a structure financed by DGArtes and Câmara Municipal de Lisboa.

Kurpu di Mundu — Open Rehearsal

Artist residencies network that promotes works by artists from Portuguese-speaking countries and their circulation between Africa and Portugal. The artists taking part in the first edition come from Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Cape Verde and Portugal.

Over the course of 5 weeks, these artists will develop collaborative work in the several artist residencies taking place in the cities of Lisbon, Porto, Viseu and Guimarães. The program also includes showcases presenting the work developed in each residency, talks, dance workshops taught by the guest artists, where they'll share dances from their countries of origin, and interactions with local artists. This year’s edition of the program wraps up in Maputo with a final public presentation.


This initiative is supported by Direção-Geral das Artes.

Network of Artist Residencies in the Portuguese-speaking African countries

**MAR+
Collaborative Creation Residency EVC/FCG**

Extending a series of collaborations we have had since 2020 with Lusophone Africa (referred to in Portuguese by the acronym “PALOP”) and promoting creation and mobility of artists, a new partnership emerges in 2026 between the EVC and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (the Gulbenkian Foundation, FCG).

The Gulbenkian Foundation has also been supporting the arts in Lusophone Africa for many years. The Resident Artists’ Showcases, organized as part of the PROCULTURA PALOP-TL program in 2022, 2024 and 2025, marked an important occasion for the artists to demonstrate the evolution of their careers and creations.

It is in this context that the EVC and FCG will be joining forces to launch a Collaborative Creation Residency, coordinated by Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Six artists from Lusophone Africa will participate in the residency, which will take place between October 12 and 31 at the EVC. It will feature a presentation (also at the EVC) of work developed during this period to programmers, producers, and other cultural agents, and a conversation/moment of sharing between the artists and the public at CAM — Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, as part of the Live Art event.


PALOP — 2026

PALOP — 2025 

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 series 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**

Waacking is a dance of resistance, created within the Black and Latino queer community of Los Angeles in the 70s. Today, it is divided into clubbing culture, with its roots in disco music, the world of "battles", and the stage. 

OU.kupa — Conversation on waacking

Miguel Graça is an entrepreneur, sociocultural animator, dance teacher, instructor, choreographer, and dancer, employing these various languages as tools for social impact and collective well-being. Throughout his path, he has developed work focused on the promotion of positive energy, movement, and unity among people, through dance presentations, performances, activities in events, regular classes, courses, workshops, and collaborative art projects. He has founded and been a member of two outstanding projects: De Bala School (2008) and Pupilos do Kuduro (2014), both with widespread prominence nationally and internationally, performing at festivals, television programs, cultural spaces, and corporate events. With an engaging and captivating approach, Miguel believes in the power of dance to create memorable moments and to promote well-being, joy, interaction, and connection among participants, contributing to an environment of peace, unity, and sharing.

OU.kupa - Conversation on Kuduro

Vanessa Marina is an Olympic athlete and well-known b-girl who stands out as one of the best breakdancers in the world. Having graduated in dance in Lisbon, she gained notoriety after moving to London, where she spent 9 years improving her skills and consolidate her career. During this time, she also became a certified gym instructor and collaborated with renowned institutions, such as the Royal Academy of Dance. Vanessa asserted herself as a force to be reckoned with in the world of breaking competitions. She won highly prestigious competitions, including the Redbull BC One UK & Portugal, and she received two bronze medals, among others: one at the European Breaking Championship in 2022 and the other at the WDSF BfG World Series in Porto, in 2023. The major highlight in her career, however, has been her participation at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where she made history when she competed among the 16 best b-girls in the world. Not only did her participation at the Olympic Games confirm her technical excellence, but it also inspired a whole generation of dancers and breaking enthusiasts by showing street dance among the most respected modalities in the global sports scene. Vanessa continues to impact the dance community with projects like Tiny Room Workouts, transforming the physical preparation of dancers, and Bgirlsessions, promoting women empowerment all around the world. She is an example of dedication and resilience, inspiring others not only with what she conquered on stages and in arenas, but also by the way she transforms the community.

&nbsp;
______________________________
&nbsp;
##### **Classes**
##### • Oct 21 || 10-11:15 a.m.
##### •	Oct 23 || 10-11:15 a.m.
&nbsp;
##### **Conversation**
##### •	Oct 23 || 11:30-12:30 a.m.

OU.kupa — Conversation on Breaking/Floorwork

##### **Conversation with Dougie Knight** 
##### •	Dez 16 || 11:30-12:30 a.m.
&nbsp;
##### **Krump classes with Dougie Knight**
##### •	Nov 18 || 10-11:15 a.m.
##### •	Nov 20 || 10-11:15 a.m.
&nbsp;
______________________________
&nbsp;
Dougie Knight is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist who began his career at the age of 14, in Portugal. Today, at 33, he is recognized for his musical career and for being a pioneer of krump in Portugal, having contributed to the development of this dance style in Brazil. He co-created the cultural and artistic association MOSJAM, which became a reference in the arts scene. He has stood out as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and visionary artist, bringing new perspectives to hip-hop culture and to the contemporary art scene. He has directed performances such as _KRUMP SESSIONS_ (TBA, Serralves and Bons Sons — Tomar, 2024) and _AMPED_ (2023), through OU.kupa. This marked his debut as a creator in institutional spaces and, incidentally, his first contribution to the appreciation of krump in this context. He has performed with both national and international companies, such as the French company Dyptik, and in projects by artists such as Mónica Calle (_Memórias de uma Revolução_), Vhils, and Piny (_Periférico_). He also choreographed Funk Orquestra's performance at Rock in Rio in 2024. He has performed solos on well-known festivals, including Festival Paralelo (Azores) and KrumpFest (Paris).

OU.kupa — Conversation on Krump

##### **Conversation with Gr3lhaa** 
##### •	Dez 18 || 11:30-12:30 a.m.
&nbsp;
##### **Afro House classes with Gr3lhaa**
##### •	Set 16 || 10-11:15 a.m.
##### •	Set 18 || 10-11:15 a.m.
##### •	Dez 16 || 10-11:15 a.m.
##### •	Dez 18 || 10-11:15 a.m.
&nbsp;
______________________________
&nbsp;

Gr3lhaa is an Angolan choreographer and teacher who grew up in Portugal and has a long career in the Afro-urban dance scene. A member and co-founder of the Pinipuki crew, he is recognised for his role in promoting and establishing Afro House and Kuduro through workshops, performances and content creation.

More recently, he co-created the play ‘Musseque’, named by SPA as one of the 3 best dance plays in Portugal — marking his entry into the world of theatre with a language faithful to his roots. Gr3lhaa stands out for his dedication to Afro-diasporic culture, having inspired and trained generations of dancers, many of whom are now following their own paths within Afro culture.

OU.kupa — Conversation on Afro House

New program that aims to support independent artistic production structures, for one or more seasons, in the development of projects that complement the action of the EVC. The support is given through co-production or collaboration in programs proposed by these structures, whose themes and objectives meet the interests and needs of our community. 

With a focus on the promotion of knowledge, _Season Partners_ is thus expanding the space dedicated to artistic practices and research of the artistic community, fostering the sharing of responsibility in action and encouraging cooperation.

###### PARASITA
_Wording Dances _ 

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. Curated by Carlos Manuel Oliveira.


###### Ordem do O
_ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies_
Cycle of conversations, masterclasses, lectures and workshops

Program that proposes alternative ways of sharing in a stimulating context, where artists and public meet. Curated by Cláudia Galhós and mediated by Natacha Campos. 

Margarida Bettencourt + Piny (masterclass) + a.ves liberta
Liliana Garcia + Joana Providência (masterclass) + Joãozinho da Costa
Beatriz Marques Dias (masterclass / workshop / creation of handmade books, from the talks' notebooks) + Madalena Victorino + Josefa Pereira
Xana Novais + Joana Castro (masterclass) + Olga Roriz

###### Coffeepaste
Workshops and training

In the context of the new EVC program entitled _Season Partners_, a partnership with the portal for the dissemination of performing arts Coffeepaste will be launched. In this regard, Coffeepaste will propose a cycle of events dedicated to dance practices to take place in our space. This cycle will include workshops and other modalities of sharing artistic research in this area.





Season Partners 2023

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

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.

**Sete Anos Associação - Cláudia Dias**

**The Gesture that Remains: Long-Term Writings**

_Throughout the 2026-2027 biennium, I will make Estúdios Victor Córdon (Victor Córdon Studios) my permanent home as a season partner. I bring with me Sete Anos (Seven Years Cultural Association) to, in this territory of duration, share tools, confront ideas, digging into the memory of the pieces I have constructed, and share new restlessness. 2026 will be organised around two work fronts:_

1. Memory and Action

_I invite you to enter my archive, not to repeat gestures, but to reactivate the questions that generated them. In these workshops, the focus is not on the inheritance of forms, but on the investigation of processes. Starting from creations from the cycles Sete Anos Sete Peças (Seven Years Seven Pieces) and A Coleção do Meu Pai (My Father's Collection), we will use the repertoire as raw material to investigate new possibilities for action. I am interested in understanding how your present body dialogues with the artistic and political memory that I have been building over the last few decades._

_This memory is also materialised in the book Raio de Vida! (Ray of Life!), which will be released at EVC. The work records photographer Alípio Padilha's view of my work, serving as the basis for a multi-layered reflection. In my case, the written reunion with my creations transports me to the reasons behind my artistic decisions; in the case of journalist Gonçalo Frota, a search for possible readings of these images isolated from the shows; and in the case of illustrator António Jorge Gonçalves, an intervention through the trace, establishing new dialogues with the images, extending them beyond the limits of the photographic camera. In a field where objects that preserve their memory are rare, this book defies the ephemeral, transforming the original creation into an ongoing conversation._

2. Necessary Talks 

_We bring to EVC the echo of the Festival Mulheres em Marcha (Marching Women Festival), whose shows and workshops take place in Seixal. We want to bridge this distance between banks and ensure that the questions raised by the festival resonate in other geographies. We invite voices from diverse areas to debate the role of women in contemporary creation, transforming this journey into a sounding box for artistic activism and collective resistance. It is an invitation for the city centre to listen to what the periphery has been marching for._

_We also propose a reflection on the relevance of the repertoire. We will question, with different voices and experiences, how this work can expand connections, generate new perspectives, promote empathy and critical thinking, analysing the interrelationships between memory and action in the construction of a collective heritage._

_My work has been and continues to be about ‘us.’ In 2026 and 2027, I hope you will join me so we can continue to build lasting gestures._

Cláudia Dias

Season Partners — 2026

Season Partners ⏤ 2025

First Stage is an art residencies program exclusively designed for young artists who have recently graduated from higher education institutions or equivalent. The initiative aims to support and encourage the creation of their first works in a professional context. To this end, the EVC promote partnerships with various education institutions with a connection to the performing arts, namely Escola Superior de Dança (ESD), Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE), Faculdade de Motricidade Humana (FMH), and Forum Dança.

On the stage, a chair and, standing upon it, the longing for the flight of someone who never returns. That body, a seal on someone's soul who is ever living the first love. The movement reflects how everything is lived from an inaugural perspective. The first woman born with two hearts. A monster with a tripartite soul, a tricephalus. She wears the sea and her skirts are the most futile thing she carries on her body. The performer's mimic features show a life of sorrows, they mean a crude taste of pepper. In the arena, the incarnation of a new god or of the old devil. Madness personified in a woman's body, the body of a little girl of sand, which embodies how it is to dismantle oneself in order to save a house that has burned in a world lived by no one. A living portrait of what is solitarily much for everyone: the day she was born was the day simple things died. A piece that attempts to justify an existence marked by the legend of the woman who can never be, and that says it all, doesn't it? Yes. This is the girl who wears skirts on windy days.

A rapariga que usava saias nos dias de vento — Carolina Batalha

_First Stage_ is a program dedicated to young, recently graduated artists, with the aim of supporting the creation of their first works. This season, the EVC will support artistic creation at a national level, promoting partnerships with various educational structures linked to the performing arts, namely, Escola Superior de Dança (ESD), Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE), Faculdade de Motricidade Humana (FMH) and Fórum Dança.


First Stage 2023

First Stage is a residencies program dedicated exclusively to young artists who have recently graduated from higher education institutions or equivalent. The initiative aims to support and encourage the production of their first works in a professional context. To this end, the EVC promote partnerships with several educational institutions linked to the performing arts, namely Escola Superior de Dança (ESD), Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE), Faculdade de Motricidade Humana (FMH) and Fórum Dança.


First Stage 2024

First Stage — 2026

First Stage — 2025

In its eighth edition and once again coordinated by Luís Tinoco, who was recently awarded the Pessoa Prize, 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 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.

In this edition, we welcome Marcia Bellamy and Stephen Plaice as co-coordinators during Weeks I and II (Composers & Writers) and Victor Hugo Pontes as co-coordinator during Week III (Composers & Choreographers). As usual, after a period of creation and experimentation, a public presentation of results will be held at the EVC, open to all audiences.

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS - 12 APR : [LIBRETTO AVAILABLE HERE](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B7FczpCeUkNXGRvKp9SMxsgIhPDdaYO6/view?usp=sharing)

###### Weeks I and II

Now 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. The first two weeks, dedicated to the areas of composition and writing, will be coordinated by Luís Tinoco and co-coordinated by Marcia Bellamy and Stephen Plaice.

Stephen Plaice and Marcia Bellamy will both work with Luís Tinoco, co-coordinating the two first weeks of the project. During these weeks, work will be centered on creating music and text for musical theater / stage music. Stephen and Marcia will be working primarily with our three guest writers, directing the writing workshop from which will come out the texts to be adapted for the “stage” by our three guest composers. Besides supervising the creative work, they will lecture on dramaturgy, taking examples from their own works. All coordinators will also collaborate with the participating musicians, helping them develop working methods with the authors (composers and writers) and encouraging them to engage in the creative processes. 

On April 12th, around 3 p.m., a public presentation of results will be held, for which three short “operas”, a prologue, two interludes, and one postlude will be put on, and featuring the voices of Entre’acte Ensemble.

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**main program coordinator** | Luís Tinoco

**coordinators (weeks I and II)** | Marcia Bellamy e Stephen Plaice

**composers** | Afonso Nogueira, Luís Oliveira, Mariana Dionísio

**writers** | Júlia Durand, João Esteves da Silva, Gustavo Colombini

**in partnership with** | Escola Superior de Dança, Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa e Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo


Young Composers — Weeks I and II

###### Week III

In its eight edition, the Young Composers Program continues to promote a collaborative spirit and to foster interactions among artists in creation processes. This year, it focuses on the artistic areas of composition, writing, and choreography. The third and last week will be dedicated to the creation and experimentation synergy between three choreographers and the three composers, who will continue the work developed during the first two weeks. This time, their proposals will be set in motion, the activities being coordinated by Luís Tinoco and co-coordinated by Victor Hugo Pontes. 

During this intensive period, young composers and choreographers are challenged to collaborate in the creation of short performances, responding to proposals made by the coordinators.
Each challenge has a very short execution time, requiring quick and intuitive responses, more impulsive than reflective. All the composers work with the three choreographers, crossing ideas and languages in different contexts. This is a privileged space for experimentation, where mistakes are welcomed and failure is part of the creative process. A moment to test initial ideas, without judgement, shaping what might become.

As happened in Week II, a presentation of results open to all audiences will be held at the iconic Estúdio 1 at the EVC, on May 31st, around 3pm.

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**main program coordinator** | Luís Tinoco

**Week III co-coordinated by** | Victor Hugo Pontes

**composers** | Afonso Nogueira, Luís Oliveira, Mariana Dionísio

**choreographers** | Be Dias, Gonçalo Andrade, Joana Couto

**dancers** | Beatriz Miguel, Carolina Pereira, Clara Lozano, Helena Carvalho, Isa Oliveira, Judith Cruz, Mafalda Reis, Maria Valente, Mariana Gonçalves, Marta João, Rita Silva, Rafael Couto

**voice** |  Beatriz Gomes, Inés Nieto, Joana Isa Lopes, Margarida Mourão, Nazaré Silvo, Tiago Simas

**saxophone** | Sofia Ferreira

**vibraphone** | Paulo Santo

**piano** | António Narciso

**electric guitar** | Lucas Santos

**portuguese guitar** | Mafalda Lemos

**violin** | Ana Sofia, Luís Xavier

**drums** | João Pereira

**in partnership with** | Escola Superior de Dança, Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, and Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo

Young Composers — Week III

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

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

Now in its ninth edition and, as usual, with the coordination of Luís Tinoco, the Young Composers Program continues to promote a collaborative spirit and to foster interactions among artists in creation processes. Composition, writing, and choreography will be the three artistic areas in focus.

Throughout its various editions, this program has welcomed countless artists to the EVC from the three areas featured in this year’s edition, as well as from several other creation fields, and many collaborations have emerged among these participants, who, beyond of the scope of the program, have initiated joint projects and consolidated their individual professional careers. Numerous partnerships and collaborations have also been established with higher education institutions and groups of early career professionals, among them 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.

In this edition, we welcome back Marcia Bellamy and Stephen Plaice as our program co-coordinators during Weeks I & II (Composers & Writers), and Victor Hugo Pontes as our program co-coordinator during Week III (Composers & Choreographers). As usual, the periods of creation and experimentation will be followed by two public presentations of results at the EVC, open to all audiences.

Young Composers — 2026

Young Composers — 2025

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.

Proposed by Plano Nacional das Artes (the National Plan for the Arts, PNA), this year’s edition of the Artist-in-Residence Project is once again co-organized by the EVC. Together, these partners will bring to two public schools in Lisbon two young choreographers, Joana Franco and Maria Abrantes. Over the course of three months, the choreographers will develop projects within the school community, giving students the possibility to experience the creative look from the world of dance. Filmmaker Alexia Fernandes will be accompanying the initiative, creating a film based on the program’s activities.

Artist-in-Residence Project'26 ⏤ PNA

Artist-in-Residence Project ⏤ PNA

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.

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

_"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.

Artista-Mãe — Sofia Brito

_King Size_ analyzes how masculinity is constructed with the aim of resignifying the relationships between nature, gender, and sex, focusing on figures that embody myths of masculinity, as well as on their parodic revisions, thus staging a game of disidentification that resists the pressures of sexual binarism in both society and art. _King Size_ confronts the creative and dramaturgical devices of contemporary drag performances with the rigid gender representation codes of traditional dance and theater, questioning these codes and blurring the differences between what is natural and what is a cultural or stage construct.

King Size — Sónia Baptista

_“Beyond the physical, chemical, and mystical stuff that goes on in our brain, nobody really knows what’s inside. Some say that the brain controls the body, and some shout: “No, no! The body controls everything!”. There are even some who think that the brain is just a soft paste which, if well cooked, would make great snacks. Thought, language, imagination, sensation, perception, balance, posture, breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, learning, memory… whew!... how can so much fit inside, when the head is so small? It is known that our brain weights around 1.4 kg, approximately three times the weight of a chimpanzee’s brain and five times the weight of a lion’s, and that it resembles a light-grey cauliflower. The brain is plastic, that is, it is always changing, and this ability to change is called plasticity. When we learn something, new connections are created in our brain, and these connections between neurons become stronger the more often the signals pass through them. But INSIDE THE HEAD there’s also the nose, the mouth with a tongue inside… oh, and also the eyes… whew!... the ears, too. So many things!!!! How are we going to fit all of this into a performance?? It seems an impossible task. Well, let’s get to work!!!!!”_

Dentro da cabeça — Associação VAGAR

_Quebra-Cabeças_ é um espetáculo para a infância, que combina dança com circo, desenho e música. Do aborrecimento à criação, tudo é possível.

_Quebra-Cabeças_ is a performance designed for children, combining dance with circus, drawing, and music. From boredom to creation, everything is possible.

Quebra-Cabeças — Cláudia Nóvoa

The project _Corpo Totémico_ ["Totemic Body"] takes as its starting point the concept of the shaman performer as a mediator, a translator of the unnameable, by navigating through different dimensions of thought and sensations. The aim is to inhabit the performative space as a microcosm, closely corresponding to both the cosmos and the inner universe.

Programs

2025