**_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.

Connor Scott (c) Gen Reeves.jpeg

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.


In Transit — 2025

2025

Square Dance ― Connor Scott

For the new piece for a young audience (aged 3+) _PAPUSI_ , which is set to premiere in November 2026, Jill Crovisier would like to explore the relationship between objects connected to the heritage of marionette craft and contemporary dance. 

In this contemporary puppetry / dance piece for two performers, the choreographer will develop a story inspired by a traditional tale, exploring the notions of transformation and diversity. 

From small finger puppets to three dimensional moving objects and human bodies, _PAPUSI_ offers a surprising encounter and gently remind us that everything has its own value and meaningful story simply by existing. 

Papusi by Lynn Theisen3.jpeg

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.


Artist Residencies — 2026

2026

Papusi ― Jill Crovisier

I-HÓN emerges as a solo piece that straddles the boundary between the comic and the tragic, the intimate and the political. It is a performative reflection on what persists and what transforms when the body attempts to dance between worlds, languages, and memories.

ihon @Vitorino Coragem (2).jpg

I-HÓN ― Natacha Campos

MOTHERLAND is a claim to the possibility of existing as a performer while being a mother. A chaotic place, with its own rhythm, where expectations of working time and production are reformulated. Seeking new ways of sharing the space of the stage, of rest, of feeding, of study and of care.

This residency is part of the 2nd edition of SPRING!, Rede More's program for supporting projects in development.

2026JAN_CDA_SPRING_MOTHERLAND©AlipioPadilha (119).jpg

In Transit — 2026

Motherland ― Francisca Pinto (SPRING!)

What do cavalry and youth corps have in common? To be perfectly honest, I don't know, but these are the first three images that come to mind when I hear Maurice Ravel's “Pavane for a Dead Princess.” A pavane is a slow dance, associated with a procession of melancholic characteristics, with a weight and slowness that I feel carries a hidden speed. The truth I find in this time-consuming task of carrying a body tells me that I am looking to delay the burial of youth as long as possible. Perhaps because I realize that I have left things behind, or because I feel that I did not live slowly through an adolescence that should have been eternal, I now find refuge in this time of the pavane to generate an endless, uncontrollable choreography. A fleetingness that never slows down from the beginning to the end of this procession, thus questioning what is really the durability of the absence of pause, using time to its maximum exponential. Can a body dribble itself on the field? Can wild horses and mares gallop backwards as an escape from a destructive future?

Life is like the plague, and youth is like the mountain. And we climb to the top of the mountain not to enter, but to leave ourselves behind, to let the horses and mares run free, toward death or purification. I believe the time has come to breathe less and sweat more.

(C) João Catarino 8.jpg

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

A Luminosa Violência da Perfeição ― Daniel Matos

Ah! ― artistic practice as a tool for transformation is a project by Teresa Silva in artistic residency that transforms the studio into a place of introspection and encounter. In individual sessions, each participant is invited to listen and become aware of what affects them in the present moment. From there, Teresa creates a dramaturgy for the encounter, proposing and guiding somatic practices, sensory exercises, and symbolic actions, based on her experience in the field of performing arts, which aim to generate states of attention, self-knowledge, and transformation.

To guide these sessions, the artist draws on her research into the oracular body, her studies in Expressive Arts Therapy, Trauma, and Embodiment (Master's degree in progress at EC-EXATT®), as well as the work of artists such as Anna Halprin, Lygia Clark, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Valentina Desideri, who have made and continue to make their artistic practice territories of affection, ritual, and healing.

Ah! (c) Vitorino Coragem.jpg

AH! ― Teresa Silva

_Feito à Mão_ (Handmade) is a contemporary dance project that explores and activates ways of reconnecting with wild nature—inner life and the intrinsic wisdom of each individual. It will emerge from a space of research into what it means to belong to life, recognizing the interdependence that sustains all existence. 

SofiaBrito_somatics.png

Feito à Mão ― Sofia Brito/AORCA

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)


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

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

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


Daily Practice

##### CLASSICAL DANCE
Mon – Wed – Fri: 10am – 11:15am

##### CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Tue – Thu: 10am – 11:15am

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

DAILY CLASSES ⏤ March

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
Mon – Wed – Fri: 10am – 11:15am 

###### CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Tue – Thu: 10am – 11:15am 

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

DAILY CLASSES ⏤ APRIL

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
Mon – Wed – Fri: 10am – 11:15am

###### CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Tue – Thu: 10am – 11:15am

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

DAILY CLASSES ⏤ MAY

Daily Classes ⎯ July

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
##### Mon – Wed – Fri: 10am – 11:15am

###### CONTEMPORARY DANCE
##### Tue – Thu: 10am – 11:15am

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

DAILY CLASSES ⏤ JUNE

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
##### Mon – Wed – Fri
##### 10am – 11:15am

###### CONTEMPORARY DANCE
##### Tue – Thu
##### 10am – 11:15am

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

Daily Classes ⎯ October

Daily Classes ⎯ November

Daily Classes ⎯ December

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

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

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

Daily Classes ⏤ February

Daily Classes ⏤ March

Daily Classes ⏤ April

Daily Classes ⏤ May

DAILY CLASSES ⏤ July

Daily Classes ⏤ September

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.

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

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

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ February

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.

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

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

Dance Classes at Estúdio 1 — 2025

###### 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 ⏤ Professionals

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 Forum Dança.

First Stage 2022

Following Miguel Moreira, João dos Santos Martins and Jonas&Lander, this time EVC welcomes Marlene Monteiro Freitas to be EVC’s 2022 season AT HOME artist.

The program provides a continuous workspace, giving each artist the freedom to use the various facilities of the Estúdios for artistic creation projects and any other initiatives they develop.

###### Marlene Monteiro Freitas 
She was born in São Vicente, Cabo Verde, where she was co-founder of the dance group Compass. She studied at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), at E.S.D. and at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon). She worked with Emmanuelle Huynn, Loic Touzé, Tânia Carvalho, Boris Charmatz, among others. She created the works _ÔSS_ (2022), _Ri te / Paris Intermission_, in collaboration with Israel Galván (2022), _Bacchae - Prelude to a purge_ (2017), _Jaguar_, in collaboration with Andreas Merk (2015), _Of ivory and flesh - statues also suffer_ (2014); _Paradise - private collection_ (2012-13); _(M)imosa_ (2011), a project developed with Trajal Harell, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea; _Guintche _(2010); _A Seriedade do Animal_ (2009-10); _A Improbabilidade da Certeza_ (2006);_ Larvar_ (2006); and _Primeira Impressão_ (2005). The common denominator of these works is openness, impurity and intensity. In 2017, the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) awarded _Jaguar_ the prize for best choreography. In the same year, the artist was honored by the Government of Cape Verde for her cultural achievements. In 2018, the Venice Biennale awarded Marlene Monteiro Freitas the Silver Lion in the Dance category, and, in 2021, the artist was awarded the Chanel Next Prize in its first edition. In 2022, as part of the Portugal-France Crossed Season, the Festival d'Automne à Paris dedicates a cycle to the artist's work, presenting a vast retrospective and two new creations. She is co-founder of P.OR.K, a production structure based in Lisbon, and has an ongoing collaboration with O Espaço do Tempo (PT).



At Home ⏤ Marlene Monteiro Freitas

The fifth edition of the Territory program brings together Catalan choreographer Marcus Morau (_La Veronal_) and Canadian choreographer Dorotea Saykaly, winner of the Emily Molnar Emerging Choreography Award (2021) in its first edition.

The program is a platform for budding artists, annually gathering twelve young dancers from dance schools across the country. In this way, Territory puts its participants in contact with the aesthetic diversity that characterizes dance today, promoting the construction of multiple and inclusive views. This highly professionalizing experience helps each participant discover their place in the world of dance.

This year we will continue the partnership with InShadow Lisbon Screendance Festival through the Territory | Estúdios Victor Córdon Award for Best National Director.

The program is supported by Millennium bcp, its main sponsor.

###### _Sunken_
Choreography by DOROTEA SAYKALY

###### _Dentro_
Short film directed by SARA BERNARDO and PEDRO EMES NOGUEIRA 

###### _Valse_
Choreography by MARCOS MORAU

The fifth edition of the Territory program brings together Catalan choreographer Marcus Morau (La Veronal) and Canadian choreographer Dorotea Saykaly, winner of the Emily Molnar Emerging Choreography Award (2021) in its first edition. 

The program is a platform for budding artists, annually gathering twelve young dancers from dance schools across the country. In this way, Territory puts its participants in contact with the aesthetic diversity that characterizes dance today, promoting the construction of multiple and inclusive views. This highly professionalizing experience contributes to each participant discovering their place in the world of dance.

The program is supported by Millennium bcp, its main sponsor.

This year we will continue the partnership with InShadow Lisbon Screendance Festival, São João National Theater, José Lúcio da Silva Theater. 


TERRITORY V 

Twelve young dancers from across the country inhabited the EVC in a daily sharing of an environment that was closest to their professional ambitions. The Territory program turned out to be a place for developing their technical and artistic skills, as well as for sharing the experiences that defined the way the young dancers think about their future careers as performers. This program was the first professional experience for a lot of them.

After the Territory program in 2017-18, we present Territory II in the 2018-19 season, with an improved plan, and with the mission of introducing young dancers to the real work context and helping them launch their careers.

Território II

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

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

###### PLAYDEAD
Choreography by DOUGLAS LEE

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

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

##### **Choreography, costumes and lighting design** | Douglas Lee 
##### **Music** | Incantatie IV by Simeon Ten Holt (Performed by Piano Ensemble — Irene Russo, Fred Oldenburg, Sandra e Jeroen van Veen); _Prelude n. 8_, Op. 28, _“The Dark Room”_ by Frédéric Chopin (Performed by Ezio Bosso); _Una melodia di Gluck “The Therapy Room”_ by Christoph Willibald Gluck, arranged by Giovanni Sgambatti (Performed by Ezio Bosso)

###### TERRITÓRIO PARALELO
A film by MARCO ARANTES

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

###### O NÃO EFÉMERO (“The Non-Ephemeral”)
Choreography by FILIPE PORTUGAL

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

##### **Choreography, costumes and lighting design** | Filipe Portugal 
##### **Music** | _Clouds_ — Abel Korzeniowsk remix; _Mozart-Adagio_ by Arvo Pärt; _November (From “Memoryhouse”)_ by Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà (by _Portrait: Max Richter_); _Tu és a terra_ by Ólafur Arnalds

Territory I

2020 marks the third edition of this EVC program, Territory—a springboard for young dancers from across the country. In addition to the countless young dancers who participated in previous editions, the program has also featured leading choreographers—Alexander Ekman, Douglas Lee, Filipe Portugal, and Maurice Causey. In the present edition, the program includes pieces by Marco Goecke and Iratxe Ansa | Igor Bacovich, and also a videodance by João Vaz, as part of the partnership with the InShadow Lisbon ScreenDance Festival.

Território III

Now in its fourth edition, Territory is an EVC program designed to launch the careers of young dancers, expanding their professional horizons and giving each participant a clearer sense of their future path. The twelve dancers, coming from dance schools across the country, work with world-renowned choreographers, immersing themselves in a very demanding professional environment, similar to what they will later encounter in a repertory company. Each year’s program culminates in a public performance.

João Afonso Vaz, winner of the Territory | Estúdios Victor Córdon Award for Best Portuguese Director in the InShadow — Libson ScreenDance Festival’s twelfth edition, directs the short film featured in the performance.

###### _Evolving_
Choreography by SHAHAR BINYAMINI 

##### **Lighting design and costumes** | Shahar Binyamini
##### **Assistant** | Yotam Baruch
##### **Musical creation and performance** | Bruna de Moura (cello) and Carolina Duarte (violin)

_Evolving_, Shahar Binyamini’s new creation, explores the notion of overcoming from his conceptual perspective and his physical expression in dance. In this piece, the dancers’ physical limitations are the worktool for the devolpment of the creative process. The dancers use their muscles in constant exertion as they strive for a collective understanding. As distinct entities, as individual bodies, the performers seek a meeting point of forces in which each of them may realize their own power and singularity; in a relentless effort to find a common place that motivates them to move and interact within a chaotic world.
     
###### _In(di)visível_
Short film directed by JOÃO AFONSO VAZ
 
##### **Camera assistant** | Paulo Derriça
##### **Edition** | André Mendes
##### **Assistant editor** | Grazie Pacheco
##### **Colorist** | João Sanchez
##### **Original music** | João Ferreira

###### _Entity_ (excerpts)
Choreography by WAYNE MCGREGOR

###### **Restaging** | Catarina Carvalho
###### **Original music** | Jon Hopkins
###### **Set design and costumes** | Patrick Burnier
###### **Lighting design** | Lucy Carter

Wayne McGregor’s award-winning choreography _Entity_ has been an enormous success since it premiered in 2008. Technically surprising, emotionally uncompromising and impactful, McGregor’s work defies categorization. Created alongside an international research project on choreography and artificial intelligence, _Entity_ is an impressive mixture of bodies, lights, technology, and image—a breathtaking journey through the soundscape of Coldplay and Massive Attack with the collaboration of Jon Hopkins and prize-winning Joby Talbot. The piece received the 2009 South Bank Show Award of Dance, the 2009 Movimentos Dance Prize, the Audience Award at Dance Week Festival in Zagreb in 2008, and the Critics’ Circle Award (Spotlight for Modern Male Artist) for dancer Anh Ngoc Nguyen. The version presented as part of Territory IV is a restaging of excerpts taken from the original piece.

Território IV

Territory V

This program supports independent artistic creation, welcoming Portuguese and international dance artists and creators from other artistic areas, for a maximum period of two weeks. Since its inception, EVC is a space of cohabitation of multiple languages, acting in direct response to the needs of the artistic community.



_Coreografia para uma santificação_ arises from mythological and biblical figures, such as Salome, Mary Magdalene, Helen of Troy. A work that questions the connection between the sacred and the profane, the body as a place of annunciation, miracle, sin, desire. Dance as a privileged space for ritual and the search for ecstasy. The sexual glow as revolutionary prayer, of resistance and search for everyday miracles. A ballet to approach the inexplicable, the transcendent.
Thus, and in the words of Giorgio Agamben, this collaboration is intended to be a “work of salvation [that] coincides here point for point with the work of creation: the former undoes and decreates the latter at the very same moment it carries and accompanies it into being.” And the body, the performer, is asked for transcendence, “the created being, because it is lost, because it cannot but be lost (…) creation and salvation coincide in the unsavable”. 
 
Artistic direction | Mélanie Ferreira and Tiago Vieira
Choreography and Performance | Mélanie Ferreira
Coaching | Tiago Vieira
Scenography, sound, light and costumes | Tiago Vieira
Video and Photography | Bruno Simão
Production | Mélanie Ferreira and Self-mistake
Support for artistic residencies | Latoaria (Lisbon), C.e.m. (Lisbon), Estúdios Vítor Cordon (Lisbon), Teatro Viriato (Viseu), TRUST Collective (Arganil) and Cisterna da Faculdade das Belas Artes (Lisbon) 
Support| Self-Mistake

Coreografia para uma santificação

Artist Residencies — 2022

_Itineraries_ is a program that encourages artistic creation, aimed at Mozambican creators in the field of dance, in a partnership between OPART E.P.E. | Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, through the Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo. 
Intending to create a network that links Mozambique, Portugal, and other partners in Europe, the project develops initiatives that connect the associated countries to promote the internationalization of artists. 
 
 ⏤

>"As a facilitator of this program, which is so important for the materialization (and creation) of perspectives about the need for collaboration between artists and cultural institutions in Portugal and artists from countries once colonized by Portugal, I wish we could, together, look at this project with curiosity and a sense of responsibility. So that the network can grow and expand, and these itineraries have as many meanings as there are individual and collective stories."  
> 
> David Marques


The incentive program for artistic creation _Itineraries_, aimed at Mozambican dance artists, will be held for the 3rd consecutive year. This is a partnership between Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões - Institute for Cooperation and Language, through the Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo. 

The project aims to create a network between Mozambique, Portugal and other partners in Europe, developing initiatives that relate the various territories to each other, in order to promote internationalization in artistic creation. 

⎯ 

>_As a facilitator of this program - so important for the materialization (and creation) of a reflection on the need for collaboration between artists and cultural institutions in Portugal and artists from countries once colonized by Portugal - I wish that we could, together, welcome this project with curiosity and a sense of responsibility. For the network to grow and expand, and for these itineraries to have as many meanings as there are individual and collective stories._
>
##### David Marques


Itineraries 2023

Itineraries 2022

The conference _Meetings for the Future IV_ brings to the centre of the reflexion the transition of careers in the performing arts. 
With an analytical look at the pilot experience developed in the EVC over a period of three months and the current situation in Europe and Portugal, future possibilities concerning the career transition of performing arts professionals are envisaged. 
More than finding answers in the present, the aim is to produce a tangible and clear reading of the current situation that allows us, collectively, to glimpse ways to act in the future. It is, therefore, with our gaze directed towards the future that we intend to propose this reflection and, above all, to stimulate a dialogue committed to the effective implementation of practices in the field of career management and transition - projecting into the future a permanent mechanism that will have the capacity to leverage and facilitate this process. 

###### Target Audience
Performing arts professionals

###### Free access

###### Accessibility
Simultaneous Translation and Portuguese Sign Language (LGP)

The conference "Meetings for the Future IV" brings to the centre of the reflexion the transition of careers in the performing arts. 
With an analytical look at the pilot experience developed in the EVC over a period of three months and the current situation in Europe and Portugal, future possibilities concerning the career transition of performing arts professionals are envisaged. 

###### with
Pia Krämer, curator
Jorge Ramos do Ó, State of the Art and Conclusions
Sónia Baptista, moderator

###### Institutional partners
DGArtes and Fundação GDA 

###### Free access

Careers Transition in Performing Arts

**Contemporary dance(s) - diaspora and Afro-descendants in the Portuguese artistic context**

On this day dedicated to dialogue at EVC, we will hear from African and African descent whom we have invited to share with us their experiences and reflections on their artistic, research and pedagogical practices, as well as on the presence of black people and narratives from the African diaspora in the context of contemporary dance in Portugal. Here, 'contemporary dance' is understood as a concept that encompasses dances of contemporaneity, such as street dances, clubbing and social dances, whose presence in cultural institutions and academic contexts is a subject for debate.

Thus, we intend to raise questions around the documentation, transmission, dissemination and support of these contemporary dances, and to do so with the people who practice them - and through their narratives - in spaces of visibility. 

What dances from the African diaspora remain in Portugal, and how are they being transformed? What relationships are possible between street dances, social dances and academic dances in an institutional system of artistic education and production? 

What role can dance play in a broader reflection on Portugal's relationship with the countries it colonized?

###### Guests and program [HERE](https://estudiosvictorcordon.pt/en/events/contemporary-dance-s-diaspora-and-afro-descendants-in-the-portuguese-artistic-context-1)

###### Public in general, but specially directed to arts professionals

###### Free access

###### Portuguese sign language translation

Conference Meetings for the Future V

Conference ⏤ Meetings for the Future IV

An intensive week targeting dance professionals, with workshops led by the João Cardoso and Edivaldo Ernesto. 
 
###### Target Audience
Dance professionals


KICK OFF ’22 

Intensive training week for dance professionals, with Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus.  

###### Target Audience
Dance professionals



EVC Training

EVC Training 2022

The 2nd edition of _A Collection for Tomorrow_, curated by Cristina Peres and directed by João Afonso Vaz, dedicates 10 conversations to the dance scene in Mozambique.
A program in partnership with Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo, with the institutional support of Camões, I.P. and decor support by Around the Tree.


>The imposition of social distance brought us other possibilities to generate improbable encounters. It revealed ideas and questions we hadn't asked yet - about the resonance of experiences beyond the time when they took place - and suggested that we talk.
>
>So, we perfused the months of 2021 with _A Collection for Tomorrow_ - ten conversations with ten people invited to reflect on creation, world, art, and politics and to follow this unique movement taking place over the last thirty or forty years and bringing us here. 
>
>Along the way, we have influenced each other. In 2022, and because dance travels, goes back and forth, and makes comparisons, we want to transform the imaginary bridge standing between Lisbon and Maputo, as well as going through the inverse route, by publishing the second collection of conversations. When do we discover things which are better than ourselves, at the same time that we discover in ourselves traces of what we imagined to be others'?
>
>Lisbon and Maputo are cities connected by the marks of those who have woven invisible threads associating the body's memory to all the other memories we will bring together, now in a systematized way, resulting in a new collection of conversations.
>
>Cristina Peres, 2022   


###### Part  I
Quito Tembe
_[I am a mirror of the issue of professionalization of art in Maputo](https://youtu.be/zbotY1zKE8Q)_


###### Part  II
Maria Helena Pinto
_[Dance has become a political path](https://youtu.be/VTJb-0sEjz0)_


###### Part  III
Panaibra Canda
_[This Mozambique is full of diversity](https://youtu.be/ity6XkBApzU)_


###### Part  IV
Edna Jaime
_[Artivism - my work impacts the world](https://youtu.be/5tgS7SvNP40)_


###### Part  V
Pak Ndjamena
_[Persist, insist, go back, and...it happens!](https://youtu.be/WGh2FDx40I0)_


###### Part  VI
Ídio Chichava
_[Emancipate Mozambique](https://youtu.be/LBWqP24clvY)_


###### Part  VII
Horácio Macuácua
_[I didn't choose dance. Dance chose me.](https://youtu.be/hoe7NGAJWfs)_


###### Part VIII
Mariana Tembe
_[To keep a dialogue with the world](https://youtu.be/1yrZ76TDYoo)_


###### Part IX
Edivaldo Ernesto
_[My whole life influences what I do on stage](https://youtu.be/jfMu_LFSSFg)_


###### PART X
Yuck Miranda
_[What drives me in art is indignation](https://youtu.be/arlTEH7gWwg)_

###### More information
You can see the whole collection [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAO_nJtqGJzGzfNRxgzkwgeuMzDvE8nQU).


Coming to its 3rd edition, which follows a series of conversations dedicated to artists and cultural activists from Mozambique, _A Collection for Tomorrow_ will travel the Atlantic axis in 2023 and early 2024. Cristina Peres invites creators from Angola, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, in a total of seven episodes. 

##### ⎯

##### Few people remember the social distance imposed by the pandemic that in 2020 and 2021 forced us to imagine other possibilities to communicate and provoke unusual encounters. The positive part of these limitations was the way we overcame them and how we got quite far. We gained the perspective that allowed us to ask the questions we had not yet asked, and we listened to the resonance of the experiences far beyond the time in which they happened. **We decided to engage in conversation**.
##### 2021 was the first year of _A Collection for Tomorrow_, ten conversations with ten people invited to reflect on artistic creation, world, art, and politics, bringing together a whole of experiences that contributed to and constituted the movement which, organized in such a unique way over the last 30, 40 years, brought us here.
##### Along the way, **we have influenced each other**. In 2022, and because dance travels, it moves, comes back and compares itself, we invented a way of building a two-way bridge connecting Lisbon to Maputo. Actually, it already existed; what we did was invite those who made the journey from here to there and from there to here to tell us all about it in a new collection of ten conversations. At what point did we discover things that are better than ourselves while at the same time finding in ourselves traces of what we imagined would be from others?
##### The invisible threads that link the body's memory to all other memories are not easily exhausted - this was the conclusion of these new ten conversations that we gathered at a distance. So, why not spread the discussion, moving from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, and propose again in 2023 a new _Collection for Tomorrow_? Lisbon - Cape Verde, Angola and S. Tomé and Príncipe are waiting for a connection.
##### Cristina Peres, 2023

###### Invited artists:
##### Ana Clara Guerra Marques (Angola)
##### Aneth e Miguel Carlos (Angola)
##### António Tavares (Cape Verde)
##### Bibiana Figueiredo (São Tomé e Príncipe)
##### Lucièny Cabral & Nuno Barreto (Cape Verde)
##### Mano Preto (Cape Verde)
##### Mónica Anapaz (Angola)

###### You can watch the program [HERE](https://youtu.be/VqGBXj5Xl00).



A Collection for Tomorrow ⏤ Atlantic Axis


In the new edition of the series A Collection for Tomorrow, Cristina Peres collects short statements by choreographers on fundamental questions about the state of the world.

“Almost everything has changed in the world today, but many modus operandi remain unchanged. Faced with two active wars, a significant increase in the planet's average temperature, a continent of plastic waste drifting in the oceans, an economic model based on growth that is leaving millions more people on the margins every year and global consumption that is exhausting the earth of natural resources earlier and earlier in the year, we want to hear from the artists. Do these issues weigh on the choices they make? Do they go into the studio with them everyday? What kind of questions do they ask themselves when a member of their team is barred entry to their country of work? Is art safe from aggression? Is it immune to xenophobia? If not, how can it be strengthened? What are they doing to keep art a bastion of humanity?”

This program is designed to question renowned choreographers  and hear what they have to say about current events. In addition to the reflection process involved in creating a piece, we want them to tell us how they perceive the world. We went after their words so that we could turn them into short and quick messages adapted to the frenetic rhythm of our times.”

Cristina Peres

- Complete series on our [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/@estudiosvictorcordon). 

A Collection for Tomorrow ⏤ À la Minute

>_**A Collection for Tomorrow**_
>##### (the people we are going to be)
>Before the world underwent the great change that 2020 brought us globally and almost simultaneously, dance was no longer just the art of the virtuous, aerial, indisputable body outside the canons that allowed it to fly, but at the same time locked it in a code that removed it from the larger discussion of the body. 
>The dancing body opened the way to the expression of many other bodies and to a diversity of experiences that created a mixture. Cutting short the story, which is after all recent, we decided to add the word and reflection to formulate in another way, and in parallel, the discoveries that the bodies led us to make.
>
> The imposition of social distance brought us other possibilities of having or provoking unlikely encounters. It gave us ideas about the questions we hadn't yet asked, about the resonance of experiences beyond the subject matter dealt with at the time. 
> 
> For the collective memory, thousands of themes that made us the people we are today remain unnamed. We want to know more about the paths of the people who, in the past, led to breakthroughs in Portuguese performing arts, whether that time was ten, 20 or 30 years ago. We want to know who they are today and why they are like that. And to discover who we are after having come across them.  
> 
> Dance in Portugal has traveled. It went outside and came back, it compared itself. To compare oneself to the reality of the other is the greatest and most essential experience in the construction of the self. At what point do we discover things that are better than us at the same time that we discover in ourselves traces of what we imagined to be in others?
> 
> Dance relates to a multiplicity of "layers" of all people and, therefore, of the public too. We might be more used to resorting to reason to discuss what we saw in a performance, but our muscles "saw" us at the same time. Did the muscles "talk" about the experience? Probably not. Hence, the series of interviews promoted by the EVC will be dedicated to the questions that were never asked to people who were there at the time, and are here again. Maybe they were headliners then, yet now they will be reflecting. And they are going to transform those who were not headliners into protagonists of the change that made us as we are. 
> 
> I, Cristina Peres, will ask the questions and lead people to question themselves. I was there ten, 20, 30 years ago, but I haven't seen everything, either. As we can never have a clear notion of the present, the past, and the future in a single moment, we will try to look at the trace that remained, valuing our being a point of arrival. And, even more, serving as a bridge to what is to come.
> 
> One or two guests. One theme. A conversation that is meant to travel as far as dance can go. Without limits of time or space, building a collection for tomorrow.
>
> Cristina Peres, 2021



###### Part I 
Marlene Monteiro Freitas
_[Pieces are living entities](https://youtu.be/yCN27S_SjtA)_

###### Part II
Clara Andermatt
_[To choose the best surprises](https://youtu.be/HSFdhAxJWOE)_

###### Part III
André Guedes
_[Generating spontaneous complicity](https://youtu.be/nJey-jEeWI0)_

###### Part IV
Vera Mantero
_[The party of conjugation](https://youtu.be/WebwaqDphyE)_

###### Part V
António Pinto Ribeiro
_[We are willingly going blind](https://youtu.be/BHMMcPDdneg)_

###### Part VI
Mark Deputter
_[The first impulse is to be fascinated by the work](https://youtu.be/ZyyeX25WT3U)_

###### Part VII
João Fiadeiro
_[Suspending Certainty](https://youtu.be/XJGYv6y2zP8)_

###### Part VIII
João Lucas
_[Discovering the world beyond what it is](https://youtu.be/-clcK1BzGUo)_

###### Part IX
Miguel Abreu 
_[The non-coexistence of diversity destroys culture](https://youtu.be/ClpbpwFFmkw)_

###### Part X
Olga Roriz
_[The soul of the shoe is me](https://youtu.be/_J9gBSiY9Co)_

###### More information
You can watch the entire collection [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAO_nJtqGJzH_jYr9EMTjIhDVFfMK-oZS).



A Collection for Tomorrow

A Collection for Tomorrow ⏤ Lisbon | Maputo

As part of the program planned for the triennium 2021-2023 in partnership with Camões - Centro Cultural Português de Maputo, this workshop is developed to share with other dance professionals the work of Portuguese choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes.

###### Target Audience
Dance professionals


The result of a partnership between Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo, "Bantu" is a new work by choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes and features both Portuguese and Mozambican performers.
The audition for the play will take place on 3, 4 and 5 February at the EVC and at the Teatro Nacional São João.

Audition ⎯ Bantu

Workshop in Maputo

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 healthy physical condition. 

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
Mondays: 6:15 pm - 7:45 pm 

###### PRICE
7,5€ / class (insurance required)

DANCE CLASSES FOR ADULTS ⏤ APRIL

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.

###### Classical Dance
##### Mondays
##### Wednesdays
##### 6:15 pm ─ 7:45 pm

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

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ July

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ June

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.

###### Classical Dance
##### Mondays
##### Wednesdays
##### 6:15 pm ─ 7:45 pm

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


Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ May

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.
 
###### Classical Dance
##### Mondays
##### Wednesdays
##### 6:15 pm ─ 7:45 pm

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

Dance classes for Adults — April

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ March

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 healthy physical condition.

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
##### Mondays and Wednesdays
##### 6:15 pm - 7:45 pm

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

DANCE CLASSES FOR ADULTS ⎯ DECEMBER

Dance classes for adults ⎯ November

Dance classes for adults ⎯ October

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 healthy physical condition.

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
##### Mondays and Wednesdays
6:15 pm - 7:45 pm

###### PRICE
##### 7,5€ / class (insurance required)

DANCE CLASSES FOR ADULTS ⏤ JUNE

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 healthy physical condition.

###### CLASSICAL DANCE
##### Mondays and wednesdays
##### 6:15 pm - 7:45 pm

###### PRICE
7,5€ / class (insurance required)

DANCE CLASSES FOR ADULTS ⏤ MAY

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 healthy physical condition.

##### CLASSICAL DANCE
Mondays: 6:15 pm - 7:45 pm

##### PRICE
7,5€ / class (insurance required)

DANCE CLASSES FOR ADULTS ⏤ March

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 healthy physical condition. 
 
###### Classical Dance
Mondays: 6:15 pm - 7:45 pm

###### Price
7,5€ / class (insurance required)

Dance Classes for Adults

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ September

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ October

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ November

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ December

Dance Classes for Adults ⏤ January

Daily Classes ⎯ February

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 — July

Already in its 6th edition, the _Territory_ program, dedicated to young dancers between the ages of 14 and 18, invites choreographers of unquestionable international relevance, giving the opportunity for several talented dance students to work and learn with renowned artists. Throughout its various editions, _Territory_ has already welcomed more than 70 young people from all over the country, from about 40 dance schools spread over more than 30 Portuguese cities. In 2023, 10 dancers were selected through dance education institutions in Alcobaça, Braga, Coimbra, Faro, Lisboa, Porto, Vale do Sousa and Vila Nova de Gaia.

Every year, EVC invites an acclaimed and an emerging choreographer to lead the program. Featuring the presentation of a new creation, a must-see reprise, and the premiere of a short film by a promising young director, this year the program is honored to welcome choreographer duo Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, choreographer Douglas Lee and director Mário J. Negrão.

The selected dancers will have the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge and aesthetic vision of the guest choreographers, in a professionalizing experience that promotes a diverse and inclusive outlook. Offering the Portuguese audience the possibility to watch, in some cases for the first time, international and contemporary works, in previous editions the program has already featured names such as Wayne McGregor, Marco Goecke, Marcos Morau or Alexander Ekman. 

With a professional background as dancers, León & Lightfoot are renowned choreographers who have been active for more than 30 years. Working together since 1989, they have created more than 60 pieces for the Nederlands Dans Theater. 

In _Territory VI_, the duo, who will be in Portugal for the first time, will rehearse and present a reprise of the reference play _Sad Case_, performed by the participants. Created in 1998, when Sol was pregnant with her daughter, _Sad Case_ is now celebrating 25 years of existence and is one of the main cornerstones of the choreographers' work.

Douglas Lee, who will create and present a new piece with the young dancers, graduated from the Royal Ballet School and was principal dancer at the Stuttgart Ballet, where he began choreographing, and later developed a career as a freelance artist.

_Territory VI_ will also have the collaboration of Mário J. Negrão, winner of the Territory Award | Estúdios Victor Córdon in the category of Best Portuguese Director at InShadow - Lisbon ScreenDance Festival 2022. With his own visual identity, the artist will present us his perspective on the program through a new short film to be projected in the show. 

After premiering at Teatro Nacional S. João (Porto), the show will wrap up the Millennium Festival ao Largo (Lisbon) and then head to Leiria, where the last performance will take place.



Dedicated to young dancers, the _Territory_ program has welcomed a range of internationally renowned choreographers, such as Wayne McGregor, Marco Goecke, Marcos Morau or Alexander Ekman. Each year, EVC invites one acclaimed and one emerging choreographer to lead the program. This sixth edition will feature the duo Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, and Douglas Lee. 

On the 18th of February, the EVC will welcome many young dancers from all over the country for an audition, where up to 10 people will be selected. The selected dancers will have the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge and aesthetic vision of the guest choreographers, in a professionalizing and empowering experience of a diverse and inclusive look. 

The creation process takes place over a month at the EVC and the premiere is scheduled for the 21st and 22nd of July at Teatro Nacional São João, followed by presentations at the Millennium Festival ao Largo (Lisbon) and Teatro José Lúcio da Silva (Leiria).

Audition ⎯ Territory VI

Already in its 6th edition, the _Território_ program, dedicated to young dancers aged 14 to 18, invites choreographers of unquestionable international relevance, giving several talented dance students the opportunity to work with and learn from renowned artists.

Each year, EVC invites one acclaimed and one emerging choreographer to lead the program. Featuring the presentation of a new creation, a must-see reprise, and the premiere of a short film by a promising young director, this year the program is honored to welcome choreographer duo Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, choreographer Douglas Lee, and director Mário J. Negrão.

The young dancers will have the chance to benefit from the knowledge and aesthetic vision of the guest choreographers, in a professionalizing experience that promotes a diverse and inclusive outlook. 

In _Territory VI_, Sol León & Paul Lightfoot travelled to Portugal for the first time to rehearse and present a reprise of the reference piece _Sad Case_, performed by the participants. Besides the learning process with the Dutch duo, the dancers are being choreographed by Douglas Lee, who is presenting a new work as part of the program. Finally, while the young dancers inhabit EVC and give their best, director Mário J. Negrão follows the process of creation and rehearsals, to make a short film that reflects his vision on the program and these young people's journey throughout several weeks. The shooting, directing and editing of the short film takes place during the creation phase. 

Territory VI - CREATION

Now in its 6th edition, the _Territory_ program, aimed at young dancers between the ages of 14 and 18, invites choreographers of undeniable international relevance, giving several talented dance students the opportunity each year to work with and learn from renowned artists. 

This year, after its premiere at Teatro Nacional São João, the final show of the program will be staged in Largo de São Carlos, Lisbon, closing the Millennium Festival ao Largo program for the second year in a row. Over two nights, the ten young dancers from all over Portugal will perform Sol León & Paul Lightfoot's emblematic piece _Sad Case_ and Douglas Lee's new creation. 

To go along with the presentation of the two pieces, the short film directed by Mário J. Negrão, who followed the dancers and choreographers during the creation phase at EVC, will be screened for the first time. The short film aims to show us the director's unique vision of the program, allowing us to get a glimpse of the learning and sharing process he witnessed. 

Territory VI - Millennium Festival ao Largo

Now in its 6th edition, the _Territory_ program, aimed at young dancers between the ages of 14 and 18, invites choreographers of undeniable international relevance, giving several talented dance students the opportunity each year to work with and learn from renowned artists. 

After premiering at the Teatro Nacional São João, in Porto, and performing at the Millennium Festival ao Largo, in Lisbon, the program's final show will be presented one last time in Leiria, at Teatro José Lúcio da Silva, thus closing _Territory_'s sixth edition, marked by a great deal of dedication and creativity. In a unique occasion, the ten young dancers from all over Portugal will perform Sol León & Paul Lightfoot's emblematic piece _Sad Case_ and Douglas Lee's new creation. 

To go along with the presentation of the two pieces, the short film directed by Mário J. Negrão, who followed the dancers and choreographers during the creation phase at EVC, will be screened for the first time. The short film aims to show us the director's unique vision of the program, allowing us to get a glimpse of the learning and sharing process he witnessed. 

Territory VI ⎯ Teatro José Lúcio da Silva

Now in its 6th edition, the _Territory_ program, aimed at young dancers between the ages of 14 and 18, invites choreographers of undeniable international relevance, giving several talented dance students the opportunity each year to work with and learn from renowned artists.

This year, the premiere of the program's show will take place in an important theater in the north of the country. Over two nights, the ten young dancers from all over Portugal will perform on the stage of Teatro Nacional São João, in Porto, and will perform Sol León & Paul Lightfoot's emblematic piece _Sad Case_ and Douglas Lee's new creation. 

To go along with the presentation of the two pieces, the short film directed by Mário J. Negrão, who followed the dancers and choreographers during the creation phase at EVC, will be screened for the first time. The short film aims to show us the director's unique vision of the program, allowing us to get a glimpse of the learning and sharing process he witnessed. 

Territory VI - PREMIERE

In its 6th edition, the _Territory_ program invites to Portugal choreographer's duo Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, and choreographer Douglas Lee. 
The program works as a platform for early career development, annually selecting up to ten young dancers from dance schools across the country. 
Applications must be submitted through an online form, to be filled out exclusively by the candidates' teaching institutions. All dance schools in the country can apply their students to the program, and each institution can propose a maximum of 5 candidates.
For more detailed information, institutions and candidates can consult the program regulation in the applications.

###### Main sponsor
Millennium bcp

Territory VI ⏤ Applications

_Territory_ is a program dedicated to young dancers aged between 14 and 18 from dance schools all over the country. Every year the program welcomes internationally renowned choreographers who share their works and creative processes with the group of young people selected for each edition.  

Over the course of its many editions, _Territory_ has welcomed more than 80 young dancers from across the country, coming from nearly 40 dance schools in over 30 Portuguese cities.

In 2024, and in line with the other programs of this season, we propose a show that hints at possible new paths for contemporary dance. On the one hand, we have invited the renowned British-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan, who, by incorporating elements of classical Indian Kathak dance into his works, contributes to redefining our idea of what dance is. On the other hand, EVC will welcome Jermaine Spivey, an emerging American choreographer who, alongside a brilliant career as a dancer, actively promotes the possibility of collaborative practice in his creative processes.

_Territory VII_ will also feature a film by director João Sanchez, winner of the Território | Estúdios Victor Córdon award for Best Portuguese Director from InShadow - Lisbon ScreenDance Festival 2023. 


Territory VII

Territory is a program dedicated to young dancers aged between 14 and 18 from dance schools all over the country. Over the course of its many editions, the program has welcomed more than 90 young dancers from across the country, coming from nearly 40 dance schools.

In this eighth edition, the program features choreographers Marco Goecke and Nadav Zelner. By proposing this names, we reaffirm the need to establish and promote transformative professional experiences for each participating dancer. Marco Goecke, a choreographer associated with the most prestigious dance companies, brings a language of his own which dismantles a certain notion of a conventional vocabulary, determining highly trained bodies in his practice highly. This opens the path for a lexicon that is entirely unexpected, exact, and devoid of decorative elements. In his turn, with choreographer on the rise Nadav Zelner, performers will have the opportunity to experience an intense searching process combining various areas of artistic creation, which process will present a vision of a choreographic gesture undergoing profound changes, reflecting the rapid and dramatic transformations of the world in which we live.

This edition will also feature a film directed by Alexia Fernandes, winner of the Território | Estúdios Victor Córdon award for Best Portuguese Director from InShadow - Lisbon ScreenDance Festival 2024.

After its premiere in Porto, the Territory VIII performance will move on to Lisbon, where it will be performed at the Millenium Festival ao Largo, concluding its cycle at Teatro Aveirense.

Territory VIII

Territory is a program designed for young dancers, aged between 14 and 18, from dance schools all over the country. Over the course of a month of rehearsals, the selected participants will be in direct contact with the distinct languages of two choreographers while preparing the restaging of a piece and a new creation.

Over the course of its many editions, the program has welcomed more than 90 young dancers from nearly 40 dance schools across the country, who have worked with such choreographers as Douglas Lee, Filipe Portugal, Alexander Ekman, Maurice Causey, Marco Goecke, Iratxe Ansa & Igor Bacovich, Wayne McGregor, Shahar Binyamini, Marcos Morau, Dorotea Saykaly, Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, Akram Khan, Jermaine Spivey, and Nadav Zelner.

In its ninth edition, the program welcomes choreographer Wayne McGregor with a restaging of _FAR_ (excerpt) and choreographer Liliana Barros with a new creation.

Wayne McGregor is a British choreographer renowned for his fusion of contemporary dance, science, and technology. His work conceives the body as a field of experimentation, exploring highly physical movements, extreme precision, and unconventional choreographic vocabularies. A frequent collaborator of digital artists, cognitive scientists, composers, and designers, McGregor creates works that challenge the limits of perception and form, using dance to interrogate themes such as identity and memory.

Liliana Barros is a Portuguese choreographer and performer based on Berlin, whose work is distinguished by a strong visual component and a highly stylized movement vocabulary. Her creations explore hybrid universes between the organic and the artificial, combining technical rigor, theatricality, and an aesthetic characterized by minute gestural details. By designing intense sensory environments, Barros creates choreographies that investigate the body as it undergoes metamorphosis or as it is pushed to its limits.

This year’s edition will also feature a short film to be screened between the two pieces, directed by Filipe Faria – the winner of the Territory | Estúdios Victor Córdon Award for Best Portuguese Director at the 2025 InShadow — Lisbon ScreenDance Festival.

The Territory IX Program is sponsored by Fundação Millenium bcp.


Territory IX

Territory VI

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.





EVC hosts Coffeepaste as one of the _Season Partners_, a program that aims to support independent artistic production structures in the development of projects that complement EVC's action.  With a focus on the promotion of knowledge, _Season Partners_ thus comes to expand the space dedicated to artistic practices and research in the artistic community, fostering the sharing of responsibility in action and encouraging cooperation.

###### The author of the Theater review doesn't have the hand of God, only his Achilles heel

##### _A man must serve his time to every trade. Save censure — critics are ready-made._ Lord Byron

This workshop aims to analyze the role of the (non-)existence of theater critique in Portugal, its purposes, methods and types of discourse; discuss the difference between _to opine_ and _to review_;  talk about the essentiality of what is being discussed when criticizing; outline the essential aspects that make up a theater review and provide participants the ability to produce them.

###### Sharing meanings
_Dance can be discussed, debated, written about, analyzed and explored from a wide variety of perspectives._ Alexandra Carter (1994)

Taking into consideration the previous statement, the aim of this workshop on dance criticism is to identify points of view that make up the territory of the discipline, discussing them in terms of usefulness and opportunity for approaching choreographic work and its creators' trajectories. Thus, _what to criticize?_, _how to criticize?_, _why criticize?_, will function as guiding questions of a persistent and certainly unfinished debate. In a second session, the workshop will offer an opportunity to share ideas and texts of critical analysis about the same choreographic work.





theater and dance reviews workshop

ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies is a project by Ordem do O in co-production with EVC, in the context of the Season Partners program. 

_Let's take dances. But which dances, we ask? Let's take bodies. But which bodies, we ask? Let's take multiplicity._

ECO.ntro #2 - "BECOMING - práticas de travessia", with Joana Castro
July 29th, from 10am to 1pm, at Estúdios Victor Córdon

_In this session, the idea is to share tools used in my artistic practice, in a constant exploration of the body through exercises that use voice in relation to movement, breaking habits and developing a mutant and versatile body._

ECO.ntro #2 ⎯ JOANA CASTRO

ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies is a project by Ordem do O in co-production with EVC, in the context of the Season Partners program. 

_Let's take dances. But which dances, we ask? Let's take bodies. But which bodies, we ask? Let's take multiplicity._

This session invites everyone who has the space to share and listen. Bodies that emit and absorb in care, yet with places of friction. Bodies that understand spaces for sharing as spaces for caring for themselves and for the collective. However, there is no room for discrimination of any kind. It's about dance, but it's up to each person to discover how it's done.
I believe that understanding the reason for the form can be an enormous asset for understanding the dances that engage me/us.

Understanding not only through knowledge, but also through feeling - the two together. Pressure and oppression generate bodies. Freedom and pleasure generate other kinds of bodies. Struggles and protests have a specific weight. Celebration and festivities have a different weight. We carry our ancestry when we absorb other ancestries, and fully-filled bodies are immense movements.
##### Piny
 
 
###### ECO.ntro #3
##### "_DANCE[s] in intersectional, sensitive and political accumulation_", with Piny

##### 23 SEP, 2023
##### 10am ⏤ 1pm
##### Estúdios Victor Córdon
##### Free admission upon prior registration

ECO.ntro #3 ⏤ Piny

The renowned and talented Portuguese choreographer Tânia Carvalho will be at EVC to give a workshop to people with some experience in dance, which will take place over two afternoons in the last days of November. 

The dance workshop, entitled _6_, will consist of "movement composition exercises and exercises for creating choreographic schemes" or "other things that might come up", in her own words. "I like to observe the group and let myself be led by it too."

_6_ is part of the partnership that Estúdios Victor Córdon have established with the online platform Coffeepaste under the program _Season Partners_. This program aims to support independent artistic production structures, for one or more seasons, in the development of projects that complement the action of EVC. In this context, Coffeepaste has been proposing events dedicated to dance practices to take place in our space, including workshops and other modalities of sharing artistic research in this area.

The artist, born in Viana do Castelo, has a remarkable career in Portugal and abroad, especially in the field of dance, but she also dedicates herself to music, drawing and cinema, and has a vast and multidisciplinary body of work. 

More information [HERE](https://www.coffeepaste.com/workshop/andquot6andquot/)

"6" ⎯ Workshop with Tânia Carvalho

ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies is a project by Ordem do O in co-production with EVC, in the context of the Season Partners program. 

_Let's take dances. But which dances, we ask? Let's take bodies. But which bodies, we ask? Let's take multiplicity._

The conversations integrated in ECOSSISTEMA.danças.corpos are entitled ECO.trade.stories and propose the exchange of stories and perspectives on body and dance with three dance artists.

Ecossistema.danças.corpos is curated and moderated by Claudia Galhós and Natacha Campos.

###### ECO.trade.story #3
##### with Piny, Liliana Garcia and Olga Roriz
##### SEP 23, 2023
##### Estúdios Victor Córdon

##### Free admission

ECO.trade.story #3 ⏤ Piny, Liliana Garcia e Olga Roriz

ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies is a project by Ordem do O in co-production with EVC, in the context of the Season Partners program. 

_Let's take dances. But which dances, we ask? Let's take bodies. But which bodies, we ask? Let's take multiplicity._

The conversations integrated in ECOSSISTEMA.danças.corpos are entitled ECO.trade.stories and propose the exchange of stories and perspectives on body and dance with three dance artists.

Ecossistema.danças.corpos is curated and moderated by Cláudia Galhós and Natacha Campos.


###### ECO.TRADE.STORY #4
##### with Josefa Pereira, Pedro Ramos and Xana Novais
##### DEC 8, 2023
##### Estúdios Victor Córdon
##### Free admission

ECO.trade.story #4 ⏤ Josefa Pereira, Pedro Ramos and Xana Novais

ECOSYSTEM.dances.bodies is a project by Ordem do O in co-production with EVC, in the context of the Season Partners program. 

_Let's take dances. But which dances, we ask? Let's take bodies. But which bodies, we ask? Let's take multiplicity._

_Spiritual Dance – practices of an expanded body_ explores movement practices from an expanded view of the body as a psycho-physical whole, as "a piece of nature to be discovered". Pedro Ramos proposes a session based on the essential aspects of his artistic research: the practice of Yoga, alchemical studies, and Jung's work, as they relate to psychology, the performing arts - particularly dance - and Deep ecology. Through movement, in an immersive way, a particular tuning of consciousness in the body will be practiced - with the focus on breathing - as the _leitmotiv_ that links consciousness to movement, in both its biological and spiritual dimensions. 


###### ECO.ntro #4
##### _Spiritual Dance – practices of an expanded body_, with Pedro Ramos

##### 8 SEP, 2023
##### 10am ⏤ 1pm
##### Estúdios Victor Córdon
##### Free admission upon prior registration

ECO.ntro #4 ⏤ Pedro Ramos

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.

### **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**

Season Partners ⏤ 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.

## Sete Anos — Cláudia Dias
&nbsp;
- **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 2023

The entrance to the EVC building will be transformed into an exhibition space that will host exhibitions and installations by artists whose work has a connection to the performing arts.

###### _For a hapiness like this_ 
Victor Hugo Pontes, 20 years of artistic creation through images 

###### _3 anos de Itinerários_ 
Ágata Xavier, Tamara Seilman and an artist to be announced 

 


The book at the source of this lecture - Como uma Raça foi Imaginada - researches the beginnings of the history of western Judeophobia, and challenges the idea that Christianity was built after and in opposition to Judaism. On the contrary, it is indeed Judaism that was formed under the pressure of Christianity, at the same time adapting to the terms of the trial that its enemies had brought against it for centuries.
The same book also challenges the misleading identification of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism at the center of some contemporary debates. To what extent has Zionism, born as a distress response to modern Judeophobia, became its mirror? To what extent has Zionism inherited the ideological foundations that have always characterized the persecutors of the Jews?

Lecture ⏤ Antisemitism and the Imagination of a People-Race

#### _How the "Land of Israel" was Invented_

Shlomo Sand

S. SAND (b.1946) is a historian and Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University, where he taught Contemporary History. Son of Polish parents, Yiddish culture and Holocaust survivors, he spent the first two years of his life in a "camp for displaced persons" before his family emigrated to Israel, where he did his compulsory military service and fought in the Six Day War (1967). He received his PhD in 1982 from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. His research has focused on modern cultural history, the Zionist movement and the construction of Israel. Translated into more than 30 countries, _How the Jewish People Were Invented _(2008), _How the "Land of Israel" Was Invented _(2012) and _How I Stopped Being Jewish_ (2013) have given him worldwide projection. He is also the author of _Le XXe siècle à l'écran_ (2004), dedicated to cinema. More recently he published _How a Race was Invented_ (2020), describing the process of racialisation of the Jews, taking place between Judeophobic Europe and nationalist Israel, denouncing in both cases the phobia towards the "other", who was once Jewish and with disturbing frequency now tends to be Arab.

Shlomo Sand sees Israel as a fait accompli, but calls for the transformation of the Jewish state into a state of all its citizens, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

Book launch ⏤ How the "Land of Israel" was Invented

#### _How a Rece was Imagined_

Shlomo Sand

S. SAND (b.1946) is a historian and Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University, where he taught Contemporary History. Son of Polish parents, of Yiddish culture and Holocaust survivors, he was born and spent the first two years of his life in a "camp for displaced persons" before his family emigrated to Israel, where he did his compulsory military service and fought in the Six Day War (1967). He received his PhD in 1982 from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. His research has focused on modern cultural history, the Zionist movement and the construction of Israel. With translations in more than 30 countries, How the Jewish People Were Invented (2008), How the "Land of Israel" Was Invented (KKYM+P.OR.K, 2021) and How I Stopped Being Jewish (2013) have given him worldwide projection. He is also the author of Le XXe siècle à l'écran (2002), dedicated to cinema.

Book launch ⏤ How a Race was Imagined

_FOR A HAPPINESS LIKE THIS_
Victor Hugo Pontes, 20 years of artistic creation through images


Plastic, chameleonic, striking: these are adjectives commonly used to describe Victor Hugo Pontes' works, which are recognized for their visual power. The year 2023 marks two decades of continuous and challenging artistic creation, at the intersection between dance and theater, in a equilibrium that is in total articulation with set, costume, lighting and sound design. 

Victor Hugo Pontes is an artist of images, and has gathered over the years an extraordinary photographic - and artistic - archive of his pieces. He has invited or been challenged by great photographers to accompany his work, and it is a selection of these images that is now being shown to the public for the first time.

This exhibition is part of At Home program, of which Victor Hugo Pontes is the guest artist this year. 2023 is the year of celebration of 20 years of the Portuguese choreographer's career, and he will make the EVC his home for new projects and encounters with various formats, through multiple ways of approaching and promoting a reflection on his path.

###### Free entry




FOR A HAPPINESS LIKE THIS ⎯ Exhibition

Area

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.

The EVC open its doors to universities or equivalent institutions in some of their training programs. With this initiative, we aim to consolidate the relationships established with these institutions for the benefit of new generations of dance artists.







Support for Dance Education Institutions

Support for Auditions

At the origin of _Bantu_, there was an invitation addressed to Victor Hugo Pontes by Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo, to develop a new piece performed by Mozambican and Portuguese dancers.

Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões – Portuguese Cultural Centre in Maputo have decided to develop a partnership for a joint programming over three seasons, which results from a desire to build bridges between the two countries and enable the mobility and internationalization of dance. _Bantu_ is thus the result of this partnership, and is born with the goal of crossing cultures and bringing the two countries closer together, allowing the training, circulation and internationalization of the performers. 

As for the program's title, _Bantu_ refers to a family of languages spoken in sub-Saharan Africa. In Mozambique you can hear several Bantu languages; the predominant one is Macua. But _Bantu_ means more than one linguistic occurrence. It can also be: a language of its own that survived the imposed European languages; an identity mechanism; a body system "spoken" by Africans; a sign that remained closed to the colonizer; a form of communication with its own cultural, historical, religious, and political codes; an ephemeral materialization of the longest encounter. Bantu, the title, takes in everything we want or imagine _Bantu_, the piece, to be. The world is perceived from the language we speak: perhaps this was more or less Pessoa's idea when he wrote the famous and misunderstood phrase about the Portuguese language. In _Bantu_, Victor Hugo Pontes will walk the path that leads to an encounter with a language that is probably even devoid of words. We know that when one speaks with the body, a universal language is used, and that this is the language of dance.

It happens that, from the different geographies we inhabit - in a country or on a stage - we have different perspectives of the same world, and so we can never speak the same language, or see the same things, or get to the same places. _Bantu_ is a path to be traced. And the journey will be made across two continents, between two countries with complex affinities and deep memories of each other.

The meeting point will be a surprise.


The result of a partnership between Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo, "Bantu" is a new work by choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes and features both Portuguese and Mozambican performers. 
After the audition on February 3, 4 and 5, at the EVC and at the São João National Theatre, the creation process begins in August, which extends until its premiere at TNSJ, from October 5 to 8, 2023.

BANTU ⏤ Creation

The result of a partnership between Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo, _Bantu_, the new work by Portuguese choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes, will be presented for the first time from October 5 to 8 at Teatro Nacional São João (Porto).

Celebrating 20 years of choreographic work, Victor Hugo Pontes presents a piece which brings together Portuguese and Mozambican performers, breaking down the distance between two continents and between different languages, risking to invent a shared place and a common celebratory language.

__Bantu_ refers to a family of languages spoken in sub-Saharan Africa. In Mozambique you can hear several Bantu languages; the predominant one is Macua. But _Bantu_ means more than one linguistic occurrence. It can also be: a language of its own that survived the imposed European languages; an identity mechanism; a body system "spoken" by Africans; a sign that remained closed to the colonizer; a form of communication with its own cultural, historical, religious, and political codes; an ephemeral materialization of the longest encounter. Bantu, the title, takes in everything we want or imagine _Bantu_, the piece, to be._

EVC and Camões - Maputo are partners in a program that aims to build bridges between Portugal and Mozambique.

###### CREDITS
##### Artistic direction | Victor Hugo Pontes 
##### Set design | F. Ribeiro 
##### Music | Throes & The Shine 
##### Technical direction and lighting design | Wilma Moutinho 
##### Sound design and technician | João Monteiro 
##### Costumes | Cristina Cunha and Victor Hugo Pontes 
##### Assistant director | Cátia Esteves 
##### Artistic consultancy | Madalena Alfaia 
##### Production manager | Joana Ventura 
##### Executive producer | Mariana Lourenço 
##### Production assistant | Inês Guedes Pereira 
##### Cast | Dinis Abudo Quilavei, Dinis Duarte, João Costa, José Jalane, Maria Emília Ferreira, Marta Cardoso, Osvaldo Passirivo 
##### Trainee performer | Francisco Freire 
##### A program by | OPART / Estúdios Victor Córdon, Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo 
##### Institutional partner of Estúdios Victor Córdon | Camões, I.P. 
##### Production | Nome Próprio 
##### Co-production | A Oficina / Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Camões - Centro Cultural Português em Maputo, Casa das Artes de Famalicão, OPART / Estúdios Victor Córdon, Teatro José Lúcio da Silva, Teatro Nacional São João 
##### Support for Artistic Residency | A Oficina, CRL - Central Elétrica, OPART/Estúdios Victor Córdon, Teatro Municipal do Porto

###### More info [HERE](https://estudiosvictorcordon.pt/en/programs/bantu-1)

###### Online ticket office [HERE](https://www.tnsj.pt/pt/espetaculos/6731/bantu).



Bantu ⏤ Premiere

The result of a partnership between Estúdios Victor Córdon and Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo, "Bantu", the new work by Portuguese choreographer Victor Hugo Pontes, will be touring in Portugal between October 2023 and the first months of 2024, making a slight detour for an essential stop at the next edition of Kinani - International Contemporary Dance Festival, in Mozambique.

###### Tour

#### 2023
##### Premiere - 5-8 October | Teatro Nacional São João, Porto
##### October 13 | Casa das Artes de Famalicão
##### October 20 | Teatro Viriato, Viseu
##### 27 October | Teatro Aveirense, Aveiro
##### November 15 | Kinani Festival, Mozambique

#### 2024
##### January 18 - 20 | Teatro Nacional São Carlos, Lisboa
##### 23 February | Centro de Arte de Ovar
##### 29 February | Teatro Académico Gil Vicente, Coimbra
##### date to be announced | GUIdance Festival, Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guimarães
##### date to be announced | Teatro José Lúcio da Silva, Leiria


###### CREDITS
##### Artistic direction | Victor Hugo Pontes 
##### Set design | F. Ribeiro 
##### Music | Throes & The Shine 
##### Technical direction and lighting design | Wilma Moutinho 
##### Sound design and technician | João Monteiro 
##### Costumes | Cristina Cunha and Victor Hugo Pontes 
##### Assistant director | Cátia Esteves 
##### Artistic consultancy | Madalena Alfaia 
##### Production manager | Joana Ventura 
##### Executive producer | Mariana Lourenço 
##### Production assistant | Inês Guedes Pereira 
##### Cast | Dinis Abudo Quilavei, Dinis Duarte, João Costa, José Jalane, Maria Emília Ferreira, Marta Cardoso, Osvaldo Passirivo 
##### Trainee performer | Francisco Freire 
##### A program by | OPART / Estúdios Victor Córdon, Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo 
##### Institutional partner of Estúdios Victor Córdon | Camões, I.P. 
##### Production | Nome Próprio 
##### Co-production | A Oficina / Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Camões - Centro Cultural Português em Maputo, Casa das Artes de Famalicão, OPART / Estúdios Victor Córdon, Teatro José Lúcio da Silva, Teatro Nacional São João 
##### Support for Artistic Residency | A Oficina, CRL - Central Elétrica, OPART / Estúdios Victor Córdon, Teatro Municipal do Porto

###### EVC and Camões - Centro Cultural Português in Maputo are partners in a program that aims to build bridges between Portugal and Mozambique.


Artist Residencies

Square Dance ― Connor Scott→

Papusi ― Jill Crovisier→

I-HÓN ― Natacha Campos→

Motherland ― Francisca Pinto (SPRING!)→

A Luminosa Violência da Perfeição ― Daniel Matos→

AH! ― Teresa Silva→

Feito à Mão ― Sofia Brito/AORCA→