"SE O PROFUNDO ESTIVESSE À SUPERFÍCIE" is a speculative choreographic fiction that follows a human community as it encounters an unknown form of life. Its presence gradually transforms the group’s social organisation and the way its members understand one another, affecting them on a psychophysical level and revealing, through its fissures, the fragility of the idea of community and of the human species, in a critical dystopia that calls for a rethinking of the future through radical perspectives.


Artist Residencies

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"SE O PROFUNDO ESTIVESSE À SUPERFÍCIE" é uma ficção coreográfica especulativa que acompanha uma comunidade humana no seu encontro com uma forma de vida desconhecida. A sua presença transforma progressivamente a organização social do grupo e a forma como se compreendem uns aos outros, afetando-os a um nível psicofísico e revelando, nas suas fissuras, a fragilidade da ideia de comunidade e da espécie humana, numa distopia crítica que convoca a repensar o futuro desde perspectivas radicais.

Se o Profundo Estivesse na Superfície — Bruno Brandolino

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

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_Uma coisa certa mais uma cuisa errada_

Quando éramos pequenas esfolámos os dois joelhos, de joelhos esfolados subimos uma escada muito alta, mais alta que o pinheiro, mais alta que o cipreste. Continuámos a subir, escadas que se transformavam em torres, torres que se transformavam em palácios. Parecia que a primavera nos pregava uma partida. Então decidimos que dali nunca mais mentiríamos, dali para a frente nunca mais seríamos nós. Então caímos de alto a baixo, onde mais baixo não havia e gritámos! Gritámos durante anos um grito velho e bolorento, até que da nossa boca saiu um grilo amigo do grito. Olhámo-lo e perguntamos: quando chega a neve? quando acaba o tempo? quando começam as festas? Ele respondeu: cri cri.

Coisa-Ponta nasce de uma afinidade antiga entre Ana Rita Teodoro e Márcia Lança: quando em 1999, viram, pela primeira vez, arte surrealista juntas. Este evento abriu uma brecha fascinante que as levou a entrar num fazer artístico guiado por um adormecer daquilo que na intenção é de propósito como forma de aceder ao inimaginável. O surrealismo permitiu-lhes também um espaço múltiplo que nenhuma disciplina por si só lhes proporcionava – ser surrealista é Coisa-Séria. 

Neste trabalho, procuram colocar a sua afinidade ética e estética em conversa com as técnicas e processos surrealistas. Ativando os seus modos de fazer enquanto estratégia de composição – o cruzamento de matérias, a desativação da ação consciente, o juntar de coisas que, à partida, estariam separadas – Coisa-Ponta cria um espaço díspar onde o sensível e o não-sentido operam como rainhas aleatórias. 

Nesta criação propomo-nos pensar e questionar o que significa ser uma mulher surrealista em 2026, e de que forma esse legado continua a ressoar e a transformar as práticas artísticas contemporâneas.

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Coisa-Ponta — Ana Rita Teodoro & Márcia Lança

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 — 2026

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Classical ballet dance classes designed for beginners or for those who have always been connected to dance and want to continue this practice as a means to their well-being. No level of experience is required to participate. The difficulty is adapted to each group of participants, with two levels available: Beginner (Mondays) and Continuing (Wednesday).

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

###### Price
10€ / class

Classes

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Performer, choreographer, teacher

Sara Schürmann

classical dance class

Dancer

Inês Moura

As aulas de dança clássica para adultos destinam-se a quem pretende iniciar a sua aprendizagem ou a quem mantém uma ligação à dança clássica, dando continuidade a uma prática como meio para o seu bem-estar. Não existe um grau de experiência requisitado — o grau de aprofundamento é adaptado a cada grupo de participantes, existindo dois níveis: Iniciar (Segunda-feira) e Continuar (Quarta-feira).

###### Dança Clássica
##### 2.ª feira — Iniciar
##### 4.ª feira — Continuar
##### 18h30 ⏤ 20h00

###### Preço
10€/aula

Aulas de dança para adultos ⏤ Setembro

###### <u>Daily practice for professionals</u>

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)

###### <u>Classical dance classes for adults</u>

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

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Dance classes for adults ⏤ September

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

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

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

###### PRICE
3€/class

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Dancer and teacher

Filipe Macedo

contemporary dance class

Performer, choreographer and teacher

Loïc Perela

Dancer, Choreographer

Beatriz Mira

Performer, dancer, contemporary circus artist

Tiago Martins

Dancer and choreographer

Mariana Rodrigues

Ana Moreno

Na Prática Diária, que se destina a profissionais da dança ou em vias de profissionalização, pressupõem-se um conhecimento e uma experiência anterior do vocabulário de dança clássica e contemporânea.

###### Dança Clássica
2ª – 4ª – 6ª feiras
10h00 / 11h15

###### Dança Contemporânea
3ª – 5ª feiras
10h00 / 11h15

###### Preço
3€/aula

Prática Diária ⏤ Setembro

Daily Practice ⏤ September

“Asymmetrical” is a dance piece in the form of a duet, inspired by the choreography and performances of David Byrne. Conceived as a continuous game — or a series of games — centered on concepts such as rhythm, space, and movement, the dialogue between dance and music constantly shifts, expands, and deconstructs itself amid various possibilities of expression. Music plays a dominant role over the bodies, with the dancers possessed by its power, seeking various ways to hear and reproduce it, completely detached from reality, immersed in their individuality. At its core, the work is aimed primarily at teenagers — both as a source of inspiration and as its core audience — engaging directly with their experiences, perspectives, and collective energy. 

The project explores the porous boundaries between music and dance, composition and performance, sound and movement. By focusing on the importance of the group, “Assimétrico” challenges conventional notions of pairs and binary structures, proposing instead a space where the collective gains strength.  

Performed by Beatriz Valentim and Miguel Santos.

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“Assimétrico” é uma peça de dança, em formato dueto, inspirada nas coreografias e performances de David Byrne. Concebida como um jogo contínuo, ou conjunto de jogos, em torno de conceitos como ritmo, espaço e  movimento, onde o diálogo entre dança e música se desloca constantemente,  expande-se e desconstrói-se por entre possibilidades de inscrição. A música tem um papel dominante sobre os corpos, estando os bailarinos possuídos pelo seu poder, procurando várias formas de a ouvir e reproduzir, completamente alheios da realidade, imersos na sua individualidade. No seu cerne, a obra dirige-se sobretudo a adolescentes, tanto como fonte de inspiração como público central, envolvendo-se diretamente com as suas experiências, perspectivas e energia coletiva. 

O projeto explora as fronteiras porosas entre música e dança, composição e performance, som e movimento. Ao centrar-se na importância do grupo, “Assimétrico” desafia as noções convencionais de par e de estruturas binárias, propondo em vez disso um espaço onde o coletivo ganha força. 

Com a interpretação de Beatriz Valentim e Miguel Santos.

Assimétrico — Beatriz Valentim

Asymmetrical — Beatriz Valentim

As part of Season Partners, a program of the Victor Córdon Studios (EVC), the SEIXAL DANCE COMPANY is developing a Repertoire Workshop for the piece _My Father's Collection - A Tremendous Journey_.

About the piece: **_My Father's Collection - A Tremendous Journey_**

This first chapter is based on one of the neorealist books in Anselmo Dias' collection: A Selva by Ferreira de Castro. The phrase “a tremendous journey of the disinherited over the centuries”, which can be read in the preface of the book, was the starting point for the construction of this show. What is this journey? The journey in search of work and a better life. It's a show centered on the work and the proletariat of those who are in a new country. With two performers from Brazil, we once again see this intersection between individual history and collective history: we bring to the stage bodies that carry the weight of those who have already made this journey of emigrating to a new country (they carry their journey and that of so many others like them who are still making it today), and the weight of their cultural heritage marked by emigration, exploitation, slave labor and colonialism. These words reverberate in this play as words of access to the deconstruction of a way of thinking and being, of normative thinking that is still present today and that conditions us.

Aimed at: People with previous experience in performative arts, interested in learning Company's repertoire, starting from ways of operating collectively, and available to experiment improvisation and composition practices using the body.  

Limited to 12 participants.

Participation: free of charge subject to registration; mandatory personal accident insurance.

Registration: via this form, in order of response and until September 7th. You will receive an e-mail of confirmation.

Contact: Lina Santos | seteanos@seteanos.pt 

Events

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No âmbito de Parceiros de Temporada, um programa dos Estúdios Victor Córdon (EVC), a COMPANHIA DE DANÇA DO SEIXAL desenvolve a Oficina de Repertório da peça _A Coleção do Meu Pai - Uma Tremenda Caminhada_.

Sobre a peça: **_A Coleção do Meu Pai - Uma Tremenda Caminhada_**

Primeiro capítulo do ciclo de criação «A Coleção do Meu Pai», a peça Uma Tremenda Caminhada desenvolve-se a partir de um dos livros neorrealistas da coleção de Anselmo Dias: A Selva, de Ferreira de Castro. 

A frase “uma tremenda caminhada dos deserdados ao longo dos séculos”, que pode ler-se no prefácio da obra, foi o ponto de partida para a construção deste espetáculo. Que caminhada é esta? A caminhada em busca de trabalho e de uma vida melhor. É um espetáculo centrado no trabalho.

Com duas intérpretes oriundas do Brasil, vemos, uma vez mais, o cruzamento entre a história individual e a história coletiva: trazemos para palco corpos que carregam o peso de quem já fez esta caminhada de emigrar para um novo país (carregam a sua caminhada e de tantos outros iguais que a fazem até hoje), e o peso da sua herança cultural marcada pela emigração, exploração, trabalho escravo e colonialismo.

Estas palavras reverberam nesta peça enquanto palavras de acesso à desconstrução de uma forma de pensar e de estar, de um pensamento normativo, fossilizado, ainda presente nos tempos atuais e que nos condiciona.

- Destinatários

Pessoas com experiência em artes performativas, interessadas em aprender o repertório da Companhia, partindo de formas de operar em coletivo, e disponíveis para experimentar práticas de improvisação e composição com o corpo.

- Lotação

12 participantes. 

*Participação gratuita sujeita a inscrição, seguro de acidentes pessoais obrigatório.

** Inscrições através da submissão deste formulário, por ordem de resposta e até ao dia 7 Setembro.

*** Contato: Lina Santos | seteanos@seteanos.pt 

[OFICINA DE REPERTÓRIO] Cláudia Dias

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

[Repertoire Workshop] Cláudia Dias

_"This new research seeks to explore sound production processes as models of the dynamic relationship between the body, movement, reverberation and transmission. Using the Leslie speaker and the Hammond organ as choreographic metaphors, in this residency I am embarking on an itinerant investigation into the relationships between different musical practices and the associated forms of physicality."_

— Luísa Saraiva

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_"A nova pesquisa tenta pensar os processos de produção sonora como modelos de relação dinâmica entre corpo, circulação, reverberação e transmissão. Tomando o Leslie speaker e o orgão Hammond como metáforas coreográficas, nesta residência inicio uma investigação itinerante sobre as relações entre diferentes práticas musicais e formas de fisicalidade associadas."_

— Luísa Saraiva

órgãos (nova pesquisa) — Luísa Saraiva

Have you heard of Art Brut? What about Magical Art?

As part of the 2026 Exhibitions, Estúdios Victor Córdon, in partnership with Dançando com a Diferença, invites artist Luís Guerra, who, as curator, invited the company’s performers to explore visual creation.

In this second chapter, the artists from Dançando com a Diferença were challenged to create a collective visual work, integrated into the company’s working hours. In the studios and out of their free time, a frieze emerged in which the physical boundaries that determine where one person ends and another begins became increasingly vague and significantly more blurred than in the works from the first exhibition. To achieve this result, a long, continuous sheet of paper was used instead of the usual A4 or A3 formats. The artists were introduced to the concept of paintings created over several days, at a slow and unhurried pace, during which a small inscription might appear each day, rather than a rapid process that would complete the work in a few hours. There was also a discussion about art considered to be of prehistoric methods of creation, and how these conceal a contemporary way of thinking beneath the surface. But in the end, it was down to them – and them alone – and to their incredibly fertile imagination and unique creativity, that this body of work, presented here today, came to fruition.

To mark the 25th anniversary celebrations of Dançando com a Diferença.

The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm.

*Free admission.
**Group visits available by appointment.

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Conheces Arte Bruta? E a Arte Mágica?

No âmbito do Ciclo de Exposições — 2026, os Estúdios Victor Córdon em parceria com a Dançando com a Diferença convidam o artista Luís Guerra que, enquanto curador, desafiou os intérpretes da companhia a explorar a criação visual.

Neste segundo capítulo, os artistas da Dançando com a Diferença foram desafiados a criar uma obra visual coletiva, integrada no horário profissional de trabalho da companhia. Nos estúdios e fora das horas livres, surgiu um friso onde os limites físicos que determinam onde uma pessoa acaba e a outra começa, se tornavam cada vez mais vagos e significativamente mais difusos do que nas obras da primeira exposição. Para este resultado, trabalhou-se com uma folha de papel longa e contínua em vez dos habituais formatos A4 ou A3. Partilhou-se com os artistas conceitos de pinturas construídas ao longo de vários dias, a um ritmo desacelerado e vagaroso durante o qual, em cada dia, podia surgir uma pequena inscrição em vez de uma evolução rápida que resolvesse a obra em poucas horas. Falou-se também de arte considerada rupestre, dos modos do fazer os ditos pré-históricos, e como estes mascaram um pensamento contemporâneo por de trás. Mas no final, coube-lhes a elas e a eles e apenas a eles e a elas, e à sua fertilíssima imaginação e ímpar criatividade, o florescer desta obra que hoje aqui se apresenta.

Por ocasião das comemorações do 25º aniversário da Dançando com a Diferença.

A exposição pode ser visitada de segunda a sexta, entre as 09h30 e as 18h30.

*Entrada livre. 
**Visitas de grupo mediante pedido de marcação.

Arte Mágica #2 [o friso]

In 2024, the EVC's Foyer became an exhibition space, welcoming proposals on an ongoing basis by visual artists whose work has a connection to the performing arts in general and to dance in particular. After two editions curated by Carlota Lagido, during which we welcomed works by Luís Guerra, João Galante, Elizabete Francisca, Flávio Rodrigues, Miguel Bonneville and Ana Caetano, this year we hold _Arte Mágica_ (“Magical Art”), a third series of exhibitions curated by Luís Guerra in partnership with the dance company Dançando com a Diferença.

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

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

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

Exhibitions — 2026

Situated at the intersection of live music and choreographed movement, this project is the result of a collaboration between Play False | cultural association, the Espinho Professional School of Music and the Espinho Auditorium. “This is not a protest” is based on the idea of impact — sonic, physical, collective — bringing together bodies that gather, moving in unison and in conflict.

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Numa intersecção entre música ao vivo e movimento coreográfico, este projeto resulta de uma colaboração entre a Play False | associação cultural, a Escola Profissional de Música de Espinho e o Auditório de Espinho. "This is not a protest" parte da ideia de impacto — sonoro, físico, coletivo – convocando corpos que se agrupam, que se movem em uníssono e em conflito. 

This is not a protest — São Castro

I-HÓN appears 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.

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I-HÓN surge como um solo que se constrói na fronteira entre o cómico e o trágico, o íntimo e o político. É uma reflexão performativa sobre o que persiste, e o que se transforma, quando o corpo tenta dançar entre mundos, línguas e memórias. 

I-HÓN ― Natacha Campos [Em Trânsito]

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

#### MOZAMBICAN DANCE PRACTICES: MARRABENTA 
- with Dinís Quilavei and José Jalane

Marrabenta is Mozambique's national musical rhythm and dance. It originated in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming established in the 1950s in the suburban neighborhoods of Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). Characterized by a contagious rhythm, fast tempo, and intense dance, it blends  traditional rhythms from the south of the country with Western influences. It evolved as a form of cultural resistance, becoming a vibrant symbol of Mozambican identity.  

The name comes from the expression “rebenta” (from the verb “arrebentar,” meaning “to burst”), associated with the intense dance and the way the guitar strings, improvised at the time, would burst. Marrabenta served as a popular expression and cultural resistance during the colonial period, being considered subversive. It began with artists such as Fany Mpfumo and Dilon Djindji, gaining orchestration in the 1970s/1980s with the group  Orquestra  Marrabenta Star de Moçambique. 
 
The dance is characterized by a fast, lively, and contagious rhythm, with a strong influence from the guitar, intense percussion from drums and maracas, involving sensual and undulating movements, with sideways sliding of the feet. The lyrics were often sung in local languages, addressing everyday life, love, and social intervention. Marrabenta is the rhythm that best defines Mozambique, with a strong presence in national festivities and celebrations, influencing modern genres and remaining alive in contemporary Mozambican culture.

Dancing the World — 2026

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###### Support for Auditions

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

###### Support for Dance Education Institutions

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

Other Supports — 2026

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With the aim of promoting complementary training for professional dancers or those in the process of becoming professional dancers, focusing on technical development, dance language diversity, and knowledge exchange, we established the EVC Training Program and the Kick-Off Program. The invited instructors for this year’s editions have established their own language and methodology over the past few years, and they are unanimously recognized by their peers.

### Kick Off ’26

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

### _KICK IN_, with Lander Patrick

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

— Lander Patrick


Kick Off ’26

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With the aim of promoting complementary training for professional dancers or those in the process of becoming professional dancers, focusing on technical development, dance language diversity, and knowledge exchange, we established the EVC Training Program and the Kick-Off Program.

### EVC TRAINING

A complementary intensive training program for dance artists that gives them the opportunity to get acquainted with the fundamental languages of contemporary dance worldwide.

### _Falling into Movement in Connection_, with João Cardoso

As both dancer/performer and teacher, João Cardoso has been interested in contact improvisation techniques and how to apply them to horizontal floor work and vertical work in a contemporary dance class. The connection with music plays an essential role in this class model, as it stimulates the practice of a playful body that enjoys moving through energetic approaches. The practice itself begins with shared or individual moments of "body reset," whether through breathing exercises, exploring fatigue, or improvising from points of contact. On the one hand, the practice develops into patterns of movement research, paying attention to touch and the awaken of forgotten parts of the body. On the other hand, it develops in the use of floor work techniques, bringing awareness to the transitions between horizontal and vertical and challenging a concept of "collective mind." Sprinkled with a touch of expressive drama, this practice presents itself as an invitation to the development of capable, gentle, humble, curious, alert bodies and minds, connected to the inherent pleasure of dancing and moving.

EVC Training '26

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

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

Words and Practices with Tânia Carvalho

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

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

David Marques & Teresa Silva


Meetings for the Future VIII

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

Artist-in-Residence Project '26 PNA

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

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

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

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


PALOP — 2026

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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

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

First Stage — 2026

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Other Worlds is a program dedicated to the representation of migrant communities residing in Portugal in new dance creations. Despite the geographical proximity, these immigrant communities often remain on the margin of the local community’s life and become, by virtue of this isolation, potential focal points of exclusion and targets of social prejudice. By making present in institutional spaces the diverse cultures that make up our identity as a society, we can actively contribute to the deconstruction of narratives that dehumanize the other, often making them the target of our shortcomings as a collective.

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


Other Worlds: Afghanistan 

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

Throughout its various editions, this program has welcomed countless artists to the EVC from the three areas featured in this year’s edition, as well as from several other creation fields, and many collaborations have emerged among these participants, who, beyond of the scope of the program, have initiated joint projects and consolidated their individual professional careers. Numerous partnerships and collaborations have also been established with higher education institutions and groups of early career professionals, among them Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, Escola Superior de Dança, Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha, Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto, the Concrète [Lab] Ensemble, and Ar.Co — Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual.

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

Young Composers 2026

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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 National Director at the 2025 InShadow — Lisbon ScreenDance Festival.

The Territory IX Program is sponsored by Fundação Millenium bcp.


Territory IX

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While it is true that the activities of then-named Estúdios Victor Córdon — Centro Educativo, Comunitário e Criativo da Companhia Nacional de Bailado e do Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (the “Education, Community and Creativity Center of the National Ballet of Portugal and of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos”) began in September 2016, it was only in 2017 that the format was established from which the defining concept and mission of the creative platform Estúdios Victor Córdon originated.

Without detracting from this initial gesture in 2016, it was in 2017 that the project we now know truly started. For this reason, the Estúdios Victor Córdon (EVC)’s tenth-anniversary commemoration will begin in 2026, but a full celebration will take place only in 2027.

Present times challenge us to anticipate and promote positions that may strengthen the art scene in its various aspects and needs.

They also challenge us to create strong roots, anchored in real society, in contradistinction to the image that appears before us and foreshadows the degradation of an ethical basis, of respect for and solidarity with others — an image whose features already herald a new paradigm.

Dance is a living organism, one that should be porous and in perfect symbiotic interaction with an ecosystem that goes beyond its own community of creators and performers; ideally, it should breathe within an ever-changing society and respond to its stimuli, immersing itself in it and trying to meet its contradictory drives.

In this constant exchange, formats and norms are broken down which merely serve knowledge as tools to conceive new ways of seeing and of creating the future. It is in this fundamental gesture that we can determine the place of each institution, defining its mission — that is: defining what it serves and whom it serves.

This is the moment to take action, bringing people closer to the art world, contributing to the cultivation and enjoyment of all.

We want to move forward on this path with each program and initiative; we want to act, bringing the idea of an ever-shifting future to life, while still maintaining our direction and position unequivocal. 

After the astounding results achieved in the 2025 edition, the **Young Composers** Program will once again involve the artistic areas of composition, writing, and choreography. In a program that aims to promote a collaborative spirit in creation and experimentation processes, composer **Luís Tinoco**, the program’s regular coordinator, is once again joined by last edition’s three co-coordinators — librettist and mezzo-soprano **Marcia Bellamy**, playwright **Stephen Plaice**, and choreographer **Victor Hugo Pontes**.

Throughout the year of 2026, the **At Home** Program brings us **Daniel Matos**, who will be sharing with us a series of initiatives along the lines of what has characterized his unique career. Choreographer **Cláudia Dias** will also be present throughout the year as our **Season Partner**, sharing with us many of the initiatives she developed with the cultural association Sete Anos.

The EVC’s Foyer will continue to be a meeting place for dance artists with a connection to the visual arts and for photographers whose work is focused on dance. In February, we will hold an exhibition by **Estelle Valente**, as part of her 2025 photography artist residency, followed by “_Arte Mágica_”, a series of **Exhibitions** curated by **Luís Guerra** and dedicated to outsider art, in partnership with **Dançando com a Diferença** on its 25th anniversary.

Over the course of the year, we will once again welcome dance artists in **Artist Residencies**, as well as collectives participating in dance festivals as part of our **In Transit** Program. In addition to these, other artist residencies will take place as part of our **First Stage** Program, specifically designed for young artists who have recently graduated from higher education institutions or equivalent.

Daily and complementary practices for dance professionals will also extend throughout the year — under the instruction of **João Cardoso** in April, as part of the **EVC Training** Program, and under the instruction of **Lander Patrick** in the beginning of September, as part of the **Kick-Off ’26** Program.

On International Dance Day, we will be **Dancing the World** once more, thus consolidating our intention of being a place for all dances. We will open Estúdio 1 and dance and celebrate to the rhythms of other cultures with whom we have always engaged.

In June begins the 9th edition of the **Territory** Program, which welcomes choreographer **Wayne McGregor** with a restaging of “_FAR_” (excerpt), choreographer **Liliana Barros** with a new creation, and film director **Filipe Faria**, winner of the Territory | Estúdios Victor Córdon Award for Best Portuguese Director at the 2025 edition of the InShadow — Lisbon Screendance Festival. This program provides young dancers from dance schools across the country an experience to complement their training. As a career launch program, it has already featured the participation of around a hundred dancers and promotes career development internships in partnership with the **Nederlands Dans Theater NDT 2** and the **National Ballet Company**.

In the last trimester, the EVC’s tenth-anniversary celebrations begin. We will mark this moment symbolically with the **Other Worlds** Program, which will run until the end of the year and cross into 2027. With rehearsals beginning in November,** Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz** will present a new performance focused on **Afghanistan**, which is scheduled to premiere in the end of January at Teatro Camões, in Lisbon, and will be followed by a national tour.

In October, we will host another set of **Meetings for the Future**. This eighth edition features **David Marques** and **Teresa Silva**’s “_Fazer falar o fazer_” (“Making the making speak”) in the format of a performative conference exploring the art scene of Mozambique in dialogue with Portugal. For another season, we celebrate a partnership with **Camões Institute** – Portuguese Cultural Centre in Maputo.

Following the activities consistently organized throughout the years as part of various programs designed for the arts community in Lusophone Africa, the EVC and **Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian** will be joining forces to launch a **Collaborative Creation Residency** under the coordination and artistic mentorship of **Marlene Monteiro Freitas**. Taking place in October, this initiative aims to promote the work of creators from Lusophone Africa among programmers and cultural agents in general, thus expanding the former’s network of circulation and collaboration opportunities through the European artistic context.

In the last months of 2026, we will resume the **Words and Practices** Program. Its second edition will feature choreographer **Tânia Carvalho**, who will spend a day — structured into a practical part and a theoretical part — giving participants a chance to experience her creation processes.

Lastly, the **Resident Artist Project**, organized in partnership with **Plano Nacional das Artes** (the National Plan for the Arts), is launching its second edition by bringing choreographers **Joana Franco** and **Maria Abrantes** to public schools, for an engagement with the school community, where students will be given the possibility to experience the creative perspective of dance artists.

Since their inception, program by program, the EVC have served as a safe space for performers and creators from the independent art scene with the most diverse backgrounds. Each new season, we have sought to meet the needs we encountered over time. The will to create of the different performers and creators, either emerging or established, the continuous relationship with the Portuguese-speaking African countries, and the engagement with movement practices from the various cultural communities residing in Portugal constitute the fundamental material that shapes this **2026 Season**.

I express my deepest gratitude to all the partners who have stood by us wholeheartedly, each contributing in their own way. This is a journey guided by an inclusive and humanistic view, stronger and richer in feeling when undertaken together; it is a perspective that we wish to enshrine permanently in this place — where everyone fits in.

Rui Lopes Graça


2026 SEASON - Where Everyone Fits In

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.



Artist Residencies — 2022

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

Territory V

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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

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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

Território I

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

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

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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

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The Photography Artist Residency Program provides a support space for photographers who want to deepen their language in the context of the performing arts and particularly in dance. Given the specificity of a photography program, the EVC provide the perfect setting, with a wide range of activities that are very enriching for participants in this initiative. Throughout the residency, photographers have the opportunity to propose images of artists or activities they captured to the EVC team through our communication channels, in a process of constructing discourse and promoting their work.

Between 2024 and 2025, we are showing an exhibition by Guilherme Gouveia, titled “Sobre o Estúdio 1”, which presents the result of the photography residency he undertook at the EVC in 2023.

This year, we welcome Estelle Valente, who proposes to explore the poetic movement of dance in author photography in her project _Faire Danser l’image_.

_How can we create a direct connection between photography and dance? How can we include the movement of dance in photography in a different way? How can we transcribe movement poetically? All this will be the starting point for my research in this residency. The idea is to develop my creativity and experiment with new techniques or concepts around movement photography, pushing my artistic limits. Poetry, either visual or written, will be at the center of my approach all the time._ — Estelle Valente

Photography Residencies ⏤ Estelle Valente

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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

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Extending a series of collaborations we have had since 2020 with Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and promoting creation and mobility of artists, this year’s PALOP 2025 Program is organized around two main axes:

## Guinea-Bissau: _Kurpu di Mundu_
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- **coordinator** Pedro Ramos
- **co-production** Estúdios Victor Córdon, Camões Bissau, Ballet Nacional da Guiné, Ordem do Ó

This project arises from a series of artist residencies and training programs between Guiné-Bissau and Portugal, from choreographers Ernesto Nambera and Pedro Ramos’ creative partnership, and from the exchange between collaborating dancers from Ordem do Ó and Ballet Nacional/Grupo de Dança Contemporânea da Guiné-Bissau. In _Kurpu di Mundu_, the aim is to reflect on some of the main concerns of today’s world at a political, social, and environmental level, but also on the potential of dance and the body to foster reflection on the possible meanings that engaging with others and with what surrounds us can have. Between past and present times, we propose an attunement to the multiple biological and spiritual realities, aligned with the feeling of belonging and of being connected to the earth.

## Mozambique: _Other Directions_ 
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- **coordinator** David Marques
- **coproduction** Estúdios Victor Córdon, Camões Maputo

In 2025, the EVC and the Portuguese choreographer David Marques will travel to Maputo in search of new connections and to meet again dance artists with whom they have already collaborated. These meetings are to be understood as a free space for dialogue, devoted both to the sharing of ways of doing and work tools and to the dance community’s concerns and needs. With these meetings, we wish to provide the occasion and time to conceive new possibilities of cooperation for the future, taking into account the challenges and the social, cultural, and political circumstances in present-day Mozambique and Portugal.

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

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

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

PALOP — 2025 

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In this new EVC Program, we aim to bring the general public and dance artists closer together. Over the course of one day structured with both a practical and a theoretical component, participants will have the opportunity to experience creative processes and what they are based on, thus helping create or deepen readings of the invited artist’s own works and proposals. In this first edition of the program, we welcome choreographer and dancer Marco da Silva Ferreira. He began his body practice in 1996 through sports, specifically through high-performance swimming. In 2022, he abandoned sports in favor of body practices in the context of the performing arts. He is a self-taught dancer, having practiced urban dance styles with African-American influence.


Words and Practices com Marco da Silva Ferreira

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With the aim of promoting complementary training for professional dancers or those in the process of becoming professional dancers, focusing on technical development, dance language diversity, and knowledge exchange, we established the EVC Training Program and the Kick-Off Program with the support of GDA. The three invited instructors for this year’s editions have established their own language and methodology over the past few years, and they are unanimously recognized by their peers.

## EVC TRAINING

A complementary intensive training program for dance artists that gives them the opportunity to get acquainted with the fundamental languages of contemporary dance worldwide.

#### Movement Practice with Tiago Martins

The fundamental basis of Movement practice is the contrasting exposure of the body to unknown situations, situations of chaos and complexity, which can transform both the moment and the structure. In this confrontation, one learns to deal with the interconnectedness of seeing and doing, doing and feeling, feeling and being through paradigms, questions, and puzzles, while creating situations that foster mobility, organic strength, balance, coordination, and locomotion. As a whole, the practice of Movement empowers and enables the global development of a body that moves with increasing awareness and, above all, with greater humanity.

EVC Training 2025

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.

Schedule

Se o Profundo Estivesse na Superfície — Bruno Brandolino→

Coisa-Ponta — Ana Rita Teodoro & Márcia Lança→

Dance classes for adults ⏤ September→

Daily Practice ⏤ September→

Asymmetrical — Beatriz Valentim→

[Repertoire Workshop] Cláudia Dias→

órgãos (nova pesquisa) — Luísa Saraiva→

Arte Mágica #2 [o friso]→

This is not a protest — São Castro→

I-HÓN ― Natacha Campos [Em Trânsito]→