F Λ R S Λ | Catarina Miranda | 2026

© José Caldeira

F Λ R S Λ is a hypnotic piece for three performers and a kinetic machine inspired by 19th-century optical illusion devices. Beginning with Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the piece explores how light, sound, and movement shape perception, blurring the line between truth and illusion. On stage, two silicone surfaces evoke an enlarged skin—a living organism, animated by tension, pressure, and distortion, in which characters and shadows confront each other. The soundscape is based on the rhythmic and melodic scores of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring—a sacrifice of the flesh. F Λ R S Λ invites us to question the real and the projected, transforming the theatre into a living dream of constantly mutating perception. — Catarina Miranda

Artistic direction | Catarina Miranda
Co-creation | Ángela Diaz Quintela, Beatriz Valentim, Bruno Brandolino, Catarina Miranda, Joana Mário, João Brojo, Jonathan Saldanha, Nuno Preto
Performance | Ángela Diaz Quintela, Beatriz Valentim, Bruno Brandolino
Music composition | Jonathan Saldanha
Lighting design & technical direction | Joana Mário
Lighting assistance | Rita Conde
Scenography | Catarina Miranda, Diana Regal, Hugo Flores, João Brojo, João Ferreira, Joana Mário, Júlio Alves
Prosthetics | Hugo Flores, Júlio Alves
Dramaturgical support | Carlos Azeredo Mesquita, João Fiadeiro, Jonathan Saldanha, Maria Inês Marques
Creation support | Junis Becherer, Maria Antunes
Original "WhisperBand" text | Carlos Azeredo Mesquita
Intern | Sofia Bessa Montenegro
Production | RÁRA
Project coordination | Teresa Camarinha
Executive production | João Brojo
Distribution | Inês Le Gué / jardin&cour
Co-production | DDD – Festival Dias da Dança, OOPSA, 23 Milhas, Pôle-Sud, Theatre Freiburg
Creation residencies | Espaço do Tempo, BoraBora, OPART E.P.E. / Estúdios Victor Córdon, 23 Milhas, Grand Luxe Dance Network (Grand Studio, L’Abri, Pôle-Sud, CCN — Ballet de l’Opéra National du Rhin, Maison TROIS C-L, Theatre Freiburg)

FΛRSΛ is supported by the Ministry of Culture — DGARTES / Government of Portugal




Presentation dates:
10 and 11 April 2026 | Festival DDD, Porto Municipal Theater – Campo Alegre, Porto, PT
30 April 2026 | Viriato Theater, Viseu, PT
19 September 2026 | ílhavo Cultural Center, Ílhavo, PT
19 February 2027 | Theater Freiburg, GE

ARTISTA RESIDENTE PLANO NACIONAL DAS ARTES | EVC / PNA | 2025

© João Sanchez

Proposed by the National Arts Plan (PNA), this year’s program has the partnership of the EVC. Together, they will bring to two public schools in Lisbon and in Porto two choreographers who participated in the Young Composers Program in 2024: Beatriz Valentim and Joana Franco. Over the course of three months, both choreographers will develop projects within the school community, giving students the possibility to experience the creative look from the world of dance. The initiative will be accompanied by filmmaker João Sanchez, who will create a film based on the program’s activities.

Beatriz Valentim carried out the project at Inês de Castro High School, in Vila Nova de Gaia, involving around 200 students.

AFTER THE FRAME | Francisco Camacho | 2025

© Bruno Simão

The work of Jeff Wall entered the creative universe of choreographer Francisco Camacho when he based his emblematic performance Gust (1997) on the artist’s photograph from 1993 A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai).

Commissioned as part of the exhibition Jeff Wall – Time Stands Still. Photographs, 1980–2023 at MAAT, Camacho proposes a new choreographic incursion, this time in the company of Beatriz Valentim, João Oliveira and Sofia Kafol, who participated in the remount entitled GUST9723, presented in 2023. The performance unfolds as a journey through the exhibition spaces, establishing dialogues with the works on display, as well as integrating elements from other pictures that are not part of the exhibition. The group of performers reappropriates Camacho’s movement vocabulary, while evoking the essence of Jeff Wall's iconic photograph that originally inspired the piece.

The bodies are startled, adjust, meet and diverge. They react to external impulses in an environment where danger lurks, where suspicion reigns and on the verge of a possible outbreak of violence.

After the Frame is an itinerant performance, whose route may require additional efforts or adaptations for people with restricted mobility. To enjoy the experience, you can rely on MAAT's assistance team.

Artistic Director | Francisco Camacho
Co-creation and Interpretation | Beatriz Valentim, Francisco Camacho, João Oliveira, Sofia Kafol
Sound design | Sérgio Delgado
Production Director | Lucinda Gomes
Executive Production and Administrative Management | Teresa de Brito
Executive Producer | Sofia Freitas
Co-production | EIRA and MAAT
Acknowledgements | Jeff Wall, Teatro da Garagem, Diego Lasio Eira is a structure funded by Government of Portugal/Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for the Arts and Lisbon City Council



Presentation dates:
28 and 29 June 2025 | MAAT, Lisboa, PT
20 July 2025 | MAAT, Lisboa, PT

ESTA HORA DE ESPANTO | Né Barros | 2025

© José Caldeira

Our world is old; beyond the horizon, a predictable future of catastrophe and apocalypse can be glimpsed. What sort of resistance can the body offer against this tumultuous reality? What can dance do when confronted by an acute awareness of extinction? Esta Hora de Espanto [This Hour of Awe], Né Barros’ new “choreodrama”, inspired in a fictional writing by Tiago Mesquita Carvalho, returns to some concepts already explored in Lastro (2015). Using as a starting point such notions as fear, unpredictability, danger and the extreme nature of catastrophes (both interior and exterior ones), the choreographer meditates on the body in the landscape and as landscape, putting its limits to the test. In 2017, Né de Barros wrote the following about Lastro, which was then performed at the São Bento da Vitória Monastery: “Like in a dead-end, there is no progression; this choreography is a march in an endless continuum, leading nowhere.” A few years later, has anything changed? The hour of awe has come.

Choreography and Direction | Né Barros
Music | Carlos Guedes 
Percussion | João Miguel Simões
Text | Tiago Mesquita Carvalho 
Light design | Nuno Meira 
Costumes | Joana Africano 
Executive Production | Celine Marie 
Interpretation | Afonso Cunha, Deeogo Oliveira, Beatriz Valentim, Joana Africano, Marta Almeida, Rafael Ferreira, Vivien Ingrams 
Production | Balleteatro 
Coproduction | Teatro Nacional São João



Presentation dates:
19 to 22 June 2025 | Teatro Carlos Alberto, Porto, PT
31 October 2026 | Leiria, PT

SENSORIANAS | Clara Andermatt | 2025

© Guilherme Gouveia / EVC

Fui convidada a abordar o Irão e a sua cultura pelos Estúdios Victor Córdon através da criação de uma peça a apresentar no âmbito do programa Outros Mundos.

Encarei o convite como um desafio de aproximação à cultura persa permitindo- me explorar e celebrar a sua riqueza.
Desejo que a peça alie encanto e contemplação a partir de uma experiência artística ancorada nos contributos da diáspora iraniana radicada no nosso país. Procuro desbravar o caminho temático da peça compilando visões individuais portadoras de referências, sugestões e pistas de estudo.
Tenciono explorar diferentes estilos de dança tradicional do Irão, reinterpretados por mim e pelos colaboradores desta criação à luz da dança contemporânea. O foco recai sobre o universo feminino, tendo a poesia e a música iranianas, entre outras, como elementos integradores e inspiradores. Não procuro abarcar a imensidão da cultura persa nem tenho a pretensão de a representar, tarefa impossível e indesejável para quem se aproxima pela primeira vez de uma realidade vasta e complexa. Proponho uma visão subjetiva animada da vontade de promover encontros e de construir pontes culturais. Um olhar curioso e interessado para uma realidade profundamente diferente da nossa. Um espaço de diálogo e reflexão sobre aspetos da vida quotidiana, da liberdade e da diversidade cultural que devemos defender e celebrar no contexto global atual.

Artistic Direction | Clara Andermatt
Interpretation | Beatriz Valentim, Helia Bandeh, Leonor Alecrim, Maria Fonseca, Rita Carpinteiro
Musical Direction | João Lucas, Clara Andermatt
Artistic Assintance and Investigation | Margarida Bak Gordon
Light Design | Wilma Moutinho
Costumes | to define
Scenography | Eric Costa
Props | Golshan Chahian
Sound Design and Operation | Ricardo Figueiredo
Light Operation | Carlos Vieira
Executive Production | ACCCA - Miguel Pereira and Ruana Carolina
Comunication Partnership | Antena 2, Coffeepaste
Artistic Residency | OPART / Estúdios Victor Córdon
Co-production | OPART / Estúdios Victor Córdon, A Oficina (Centro Cultural Vila Flor/Guimarães)