Danças na Cidade becomes alkantara. After 13 years of working in contemporary dance, the change of name highlights the evolution that has taken place over the last few years in the arts world and in the way we envisage our work. alkantara means "the bridge" in Arab language (Alcântara also happens to be the neighbourhood of the bridge over the river Tejo in Lisbon) and our objective is to build bridges: between artists, between cultures, between art forms.

The new dance that shook up the Portuguese arts scene during the nineties with its audacious proposals, is now accompanied by a variety of innovative theatre work and an increasingly important alternative music production. The borderline that divides art forms has become tenuous. We have decided to enlarge our field of action so as to include these new realities and develop activities in dance, theatre, music and all hybrid forms.  

At the same time, we have come to acknowledge more forcefully the relevance of the artistic production of artists from other cultures and continents. The creation of the project Dançar o Que é Nosso in 1998 was a first concrete step, but seven years later our commitment to the idea of intercultural dialogue reaches far beyond the scope of the original project. With the change to alkantara, we are bringing international collaboration and intercultural exchange to the centre of our attention.

The most visible and ambitious project of this new organisation is the alkantara festival, a multidisciplinary and intercultural festival, dedicated to the presentation of contemporary performing art from all over the world. The first edition will take place from June 1st till 18th 2006 in Lisbon, in collaboration with a large number of venues and cultural organisations.

In between festivals, alkantara focuses on research and development, experimenting with new formats and developing a more profound exchange between artists from different cultures and backgrounds. This includes the organisation of artists' residencies in Portugal and abroad, the production of international arts projects and the realisation of initiatives that aim to stimulate the debate on interculturalism at home and abroad. In this way, we hope to be instrumental in turning Lisbon into a bridge between cultures and a point of reference for the international performing arts scene.