For a Timeline to Be
For a Timeline to Be is an artistic and historiographical research project that aims to identify milestones and episodes related to the development and dissemination of dance in Portugal during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Taking the Portuguese New Dance movement as its point of departure, it investigates the conditions of its emergence and formation—across both the long and the short durée, tracing the century as a whole.
Conceived and directed by João dos Santos Martins, whose work has been intersecting the archeology of choreographic artifacts of dance repertoire and their operativeness in the present time and historian and performance studies scholar Ana Bigotte Vieira, who has dedicated herself to cultural history and the role of art in shaping the social sphere as a collective device for artistic and historical research, the project originated within the context of Reencontro, by João dos Santos Martins, with Vera Mantero, Paulo Ribeiro, Clara Andermatt and João Fiadeiro, co-produced by Teatro Viriato in 2016. Since then, it has unfolded through seven editions and several working sessions across the country (more info on the several editions underneath)
Combining bibliographic sources with the listening of testimonies, the collection of original documents with iconographic research, and the mapping of narratives and relationships, the project seeks to create a plural space for understanding what dance is—or might be. It proposes a familiarity with works, authors, “canons,” corporealities, historical periods, and worldviews, while interrogating them aesthetically and politically. Taking the present as its site of enunciation, each edition undergoes transformations that lead to a physical and methodological reconfiguration of what is made visible,Reconfiguring the team and including new collaborations, such as: in curatorship, the artists and researchers Carlos Manuel Oliveira (5th and 7th editions) and Ana Dinger (7th edition); in research and content writing, Paula Caspão, Rita Luís, and Pedro Cerejo; and Desirée Desmarattes, Diana Niepce, Angela Guerreiro and Piny, Luís Guerra, and André Cabral in relation to singular research projects supported by the project or re-performances it has commissioned. With each exhibition or event, it has sought to create conditions of possibility for encounters for a broader community that includes the past as present, questioning it in order to open up futures, worldmaking. The complete list of people who collaborated on the project can be found in the Project Technical specifications (see below).
⌂ TECHNICAL INFO
Curatorship, research and edition: Ana Bigotte Vieira, João dos Santos Martins and Carlos Manuel OliveiraReserach support: Pedro Cerejo, Sílvia Pinto Coelho
Design: Ana Schefer e Teo Furtado
Set up: Pedro Lagoa
Production: Associação Parasita
Supports: República Portuguesa: Cultura/ DGArtes Direção-Geral das Artes, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Teatro Sá da Bandeira - Santarém, Teatro Viriato, Livraria Tigre de Papel
Partnerships: Instituto de História Contemporânea, Centro de Estudos de Teatro
Acknolodgements: Paula Caspão, Maria José Fazenda, Daniel Tércio, Maria João Brilhante, Luísa Roubaud
Contributors: Alexandra Balona, Ana Cristina Vicente, Ana Mira, André e. Teodósio, António Cascais, António Laginha, Cristiana Rocha, Cristina Grande, Cristina Santos, Daniel Tércio, Duarte Bénard da Costa, Elisabete Paiva, Ezequiel Santos, Gil Mendo, Joclécio Azevedo, Luísa Roubaud, Magda Henriques, Margarida Bettencourt, Maria José Fazenda, Mariana Brandão, Mariana Pinto dos Santos, Mónica Guerreiro, Paula Caspão, Rita Natálio, Rogério Nuno Costa, Sílvia Pinto Coelho, Tiago Bartolomeu Costa