“alkantara festival was presented two days ago at Teatro São Luiz, the festival’s meeting point between 2 and 18 June, with a program that inscribes Lisbon in the circuit of large scale international festivals and taking dance, theatre and performance out on the streets, squares, gardens, hospitals and convents. (…) To live uninterruptedly for 17 days…”

In PÚBLICO, 4 May 2006

Tickets available at Ticketline, Fnac and Abreu

For more information: www.alkantarafestival.pt   

Would you like to be a part of an international dance and theatre festival? We are looking for volunteers to help us organise the alkantara festival. The period is from the 26th of April to the 18th of June. Volunteers will be organized in several groups: Alkantara group (8 people), Stage hands (8 people), Assistant producer for Encontros 2005-2006 (6 people) and for Close Encounters (16 pessoas), Front of House (16 people). The volunteers should be major and be partially or totally available according to the functions they submitted their application for.  If you are interested, please fill out the form and send it to us by e-mail.

The Jury, formed by Mark Deputter, Tiago Guedes and Susana Lopes. 16 projects were selected.  The projects will be presented at alkantara festival, on June 4th.

On March 25th alkantara receives at the studio (rua camilo castelo branco 33 3º 1150-083 lisboa - portugal) the P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) auditions for the academic year 2006-2007. The famous higher education level school for contemporary dance is looking for dancers, dance makers and choreographers that must be at least 18 years old and maximum 24 in the academic year 2006-2007. The whole curriculum of P.A.R.T.S. is four years long, consisting of a training cycle of two years and a research cycle of two years. To register: fill in the online form.

Until the 3rd of March 2006, it still is possible to present proposals for Close Encounters III. This performing arts project is dedicated to the creation and presentation of site specific work  (dance, theatre, music, instalation, live-art, etc.). It is a challenge to create art for public spaces.

NEW SPACES! Claustro e Capela do Convento das Bernardas, Auditório da Casa Fernando Pessoa, Sala Pequena e Salão Nobre do Palácio Galveias, Sala do Risco, Exteriores do Parque Mayer, Jardim e Estufa do Museu da Cidade.

The documentary video “The Encounter” by Luciana Fina will be presented at Panorama, a program of portuguese contemporary video, on February 3rd at 9pm. The session will be followed by a conference entitled “Behind the stage”.

Following the Encounters in Lisbon (August 2005) and Rio de Janeiro (Panorama Rio Dança, October 2005), the third part of Encounters 2005-2006 takes off.  Between December 2005 and May 2006, residencies for research and creation will be held in the country of origin of the participating artists from outside of Portugal and Brazil. Inevitably, these residencies will offer yet another series of meetings with different cultural and social environments.

Filipa Francisco and Margarida Mestre will be staying in Maputo from 4 till 23 December to accompany the creative processes of twelve young Mozambican choreographers who recently finished CulturArte’s Dance Development Course.

Two Portuguese composers/musicians went to Istanbul in the beginning of November to work for a week with the Turkish choreographer Aydin Teker on her creation “aKabi”, with on 18 November at the Berliner Festspiele, Spielezeit Europa.

The documentary video “The Encounter” by Luciana Fina will be presented at two Latin American festivals: Panorama Rio Dança, in Rio de Janeiro  and FIVU, in Montevideo.

Between 15 October and 6 November, the six artists’ teams invited to partake in the project Close Encounters 2005-06, travel to Brasil to develop the second phase of the project.

On invitation of alkantara, Miguel Borges is giving a theatre workshop at the international theatre festival RioCenaContemporânea, between 10 and 16 October.