Dança Não Dança

Dança não dança – archaeologies of the new dance in Portugal

Dança não dança – archaeologies of the new dance in Portugal is a programme dedicated to different manifestations of dance, seeking to situate what in the 1990s was called the New Portuguese Dance, but not without taking into account what is “new” in a multiplicity of occurrences that span the 20th century. It’s about “dancing the nervousness of history”, experiencing, through the dances, the contradictions of the time in which they occur, showing possible other times.
Curated by João dos Santos Martins, Ana Bigotte Vieira, Carlos Manuel Oliveira and Ana Dinger, the programme is divided into three strands, comprising a cycle of events, a book and an exhibition. Each of these strands covers the 20th and early 21st centuries, problematising linear representations of time in their own way (specific to their mediality), echoing the others and showing dances and their stories from different perspectives.

The cycle of (re)performances, films and conversations, which constitutes the first axis of non-dance dance, has the institutional collaboration of Companhia Nacional de Bailado, Escola de Dança do Conservatório Nacional, Escola Superior de Dança and the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema.

The result of research begun in 2016, this is the seventh edition of the project Para Uma Timeline a Haver – genealogies of dance as an artistic practice in Portugal.

(Re)performances, films and talks
30 Oct 2023 – 04 Feb 2024
A century of history in ten sessions. Each session presents a choreographic work, a pair or a set of works from different times. Most are the result of a transmission process or original research work based on scarce documentary material.

Catalogue book
2024
400 pages that revisit a century of dance in Portugal, reproducing hundreds of documents including photographs, press cuttings, scores and notes, and bringing together a range of texts including commissioned essays, republications and exclusive interviews.

Exhibition
07 nov 2024 – 25 feb 2025
The result of intensive research, the exhibition draws on audiovisual recordings and archive materials to highlight episodes that have influenced authors, practices and institutions, transforming ideas of dance and the body over the last century.