Missing Link is a solo based on the faculties of being a human, an animal and a spiritual being. I'm interested in the life of the 'primitive' body and the 'future' virtual body as two different perceptions of the present human. Missing Link wants to confront these elements with the information highway and the power of the image in order to research their influence on the collective unconscious.

Lília Mestre

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The stage is empty, there is no sound, the lighting is unobtrusive, the performance is called sans (without). As three dancers enter the stage, it seems as though they are ready to invent their performance, then and there, on the spot. With the unshakeable seriousness of children inventing their game as they go along, they walk, jump, sit, stand up, lie down. If dance is movement, then dance can be found in everything we do. Not only in the smooth functioning of our bodies, but also in everything that goes wrong.
And things go wrong: movements are interrupted, people fall and are not caught in time, phrases are broken off without warning. Playfully, the three go on to construct an intricate game of failed transitions and unexpected ruptures, leaving the audience in the dark about what is real and what is played. Where does the game begin and where does it end?

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© Herman Sorgeloos

ROSAS [B]
Small Hands
15 and 16,
saturday and sunday,
22H00, Teatro Camões
duration: 1H00

Two female dancers in an oval area, surrounded by the audience. The music is by Purcell. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker returns to more intimate work after large-scale productions such as In Real Time and Rain. She dances once again on stage, together with Cynthia Loemij, a 'travelling companion' of more than ten years. In search of the essence, of doing more with less. In search of a new dance vocabulary.

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Rafael Alvarez is one of those creators who slowly and with unshakeable determination create and invent their own path. When seeing the work he has been creating since 1996, you would sometimes be inclined to call him a choreographer, at other times a video artist, and at still other instances a visual artist. His work unites elements of performance, installation and video exhibit and is characterised by a strong sense of accuracy and visual economy.
In his project Match nulo, Rafael Alvarez explores the passage of time and the transformations it works on the body. To prepare for this performance he has been teaching contemporary dance classes for seniors at the Centro de Pedagogia e Animação of the Centro Cultural de Belém over a long period of time. "The contributions of the participants in these workshops have helped me tremendously", says Alvarez. "They have made me rediscover the body and dance from a much wider perspective and appreciate the inherent diversity of the contemporary body.""

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RARY [Madagáscar] Mpirahalahy Mianala
19 and 20,
wednesday and thursday,
22H00, Teatro Trindade
duration: 50min

Dihy Tsy Amin Aponga
21 and 22,
friday and saturday,
20H00, Teatro Taborda
duration: 25min

DAVIS FREEMAN/
/ RANDOM SCREAM
[USA/B]
Too shy to stare
from 20 to 22, 24 and 25,
from thursday to saturday,
monday and tuesday,
at 18H00 and 22H00,
A Capital
- Teatro Paulo Claro
duration: 2H00
number of places limited
to 10

Seven performers/musicians perform for 10 individual audience members. Each visitor follows his/her own path through the different rooms of the performance. It is an emotional crusade that confronts us with the projections we make of ourselves.

All audience members of the performance need to have their photograph taken BEFORE the performances. Photograph sessions will be organised as of Monday 17 June.
To combine day and hour, please call (+351) 91.873 06 79 at least 48 hours before the performance that you have reserved for. Failure to do so will result in the automatic cancellation of your ticket.

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The project is based on the confrontation of two characters. The action centers around Oscar Wilde, James Bond and their respective social circles. On the side of Oscar Wilde we encounter Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie) and two 'Wilde Boys'. Next to James Bond we meet a Crook and the inevitable 'Bond Girls'. The stage is split in two distinct simetrical parts, held together by the butler and master of ceremony. Both Bond and Wilde are models for the staging and codification of masculine behaviour. They are stereotypes that at first sight seem symmetrical opposites. Wilde is covered with connotations of sexual ambiguity, subtlety in gestures and moral decadence. Bond is generally thought of as the summum of masculine behaviour; his acts are measured by their effectiveness and his morals by their degree of heroism.
A more subtle analysis though, opens possibilities to speculate on similarities between both characters and the possible inversion of connotations. In this piece, Wilde and Bond wake from their sleep of stereotypes and regress as ghosts to a situation where they don't know if they are flesh and blood, robots or manequins, persons or characters, reality or imagination. They are stereotypes de-programmed for a libertine staging that opens doors to new encounters in a world where all fictions are possible.

Alexandre Melo

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RAIZ DI POLON -
BETY FERNANDES
e ROSY TIMAS [CV]
Duas sem três
22, 24 and 25,
saturday,
monday and tuesday,
20H00,
Centro Cultural de Belém
- Sala de Ensaio
Co-procdution: Danças
na Cidade 2002
duration: 30min

Women have a special place in cape-verdian culture. In a country from which most men emigrate, women are the keepers of tradition and assure survival and continuity. Batuque, a form of choral song accompanied by percussion and executed exclusively by women, is an impressive example of women's strong contribution to African culture. Hence the idea of transforming the female imaginary into a duet performed by the dancers of the company Raiz di Polon. Singing and the use of the body as a musical instrument are constantly present elements in cape-verdian culture, which allows for the multiplication of body language, rhythms and sonorities.
Inspired by Duas sem três, a literary piece by the cape-verdian musician, composer and writer Mário Lúcio Sousa, the dancers create their own universe on the stage. The Portuguese choreographer and singer Margarida Mestre 'coaches' the project and accompanies the work on body-voice relationship.


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i pursue one thing in fact, one specific thing

unfortunately that something is so imbricated that i sometimes lose sight of it.

i can at least say, though, that i have a sensibility that often works by default; one could say that it is characterised by a keen sense of the tragic, or of the void, or of the urgence, or of the intense sensation, intense necessity.

i also catch a glimps of this something when i hear for instance what happens in the music and the poetry and the art of Caetano Veloso; i hear something that is very close to tragedy and generosity, pain and love, death and possibility. i feel close to him and to the way he feels: physically, rhythmically, poetically, tragically, happinessly.

that wish for happiness, that comprehension of happiness.

all this all together. comprehension of vision.

i saw the french culture minister talk on television about the grand cinematographic culture of some of the new french film directors… the idea of a grand culture of performance passed my mind and it made me feel good. especially from the perspective of the sensibility that I am after, or that is after me.
it is a culture of life, obviously and as always.

Vera Mantero

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