Alkantara Festival
The Alkantara Festival is an international performing arts festival in the city of Lisbon. It takes place every year in November, in partnership with some of the city's most emblematic performing arts venues: Centro Cultural de Belém, Culturgest, São Luiz Teatro Municipal, Teatro do Bairro Alto, and Teatro Nacional D. Maria II.
The Alkantara Festival presents dance, theatre, and performance, as well as experimental formats at the crossroads of different practices in the arts and knowledge production. The programme features artists from different places, who often engage with urgent questions in contemporary society.
Alkantara Festival (2006-)
2006, 2008 - directed by Mark Deputter
2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 - directed by Thomas Walgrave
2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 - directed by Carla Nobre Sousa e David Cabecinha
Espaço Alkantara
Espaço Alkantara is a place for arts residencies (attributed by open call or by invitation), showings, meetings, workshops, and occasional performances. It is also home to PISTA, a professional development programme for producers and self-producing artists, co-organised with Polo Cultural Gaivotas | Boavista/Loja Lisboa Cultura.
The Alkantara offices are located on the first floor at Espaço Alkantara. If you are an independent producer or artist who needs a place to do desk work, apply for a spot in our open office.
PISTA
Together with Polo Cultural Gaivotas | Boavista / Loja Lisboa Cultura, we developed PISTA, a modular training programme and the Forum Cultura for production professionals and artists.
Past projects
Danças na Cidade Festival (1993-2002)
1993 - coordinated and programmed by Mónica Lapa and Albino Moura
1994, 1995 - directed by Mónica Lapa
1996, 1997, 1999 - directed by Mónica Lapa and Mark Deputter
2002 - directed by Mark Deputter
Encontros Al Kantara (2004)
Directed by Mark Deputter
Sete Anos Sete Peças (2016-2022)
Developed by choreographer Cláudia Dias
International Projects
Dançar o que é nosso (1998-2003)
CoLABoratório (2006-2007)
Será o que fizermos (2007)
Nu Kre Bai Na Bu Onda (2007-2010)
Lugares Imaginários/Sites of Imagination (2007)
NXTSTP (2007-2017)
Départs (2009-2014)
Point(e) to Point (2009)
Global City/Local City (2012-2015)
Artista na Cidade (2012-2018)
2012 - Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
2014 - Tim Etchells
2016 - Faustin Linyekula
2018 - Christiane Jatahy
Departures and Arrivals (2014-2018)
Urban Heat (2015-2017)
1Space (2015-2017)
Imagining Futures (2021-)
Common Stories (2023-2025)
IN EX(ILE) LAB (2023-2024)