DISTANTE – Paisagens, Máquinas e Animais | Né Barros | 2023
© Pedro Figueiredo e José Caldeira/TMP
There are forms of combat that have evolved to the dimension of a game, such
as fencing. Throughout the piece Distante, the third of the series Landscapes,
Machines, Animals the dancers are players, they call upon technique as an
evolved way of relating body to body. The body-machine should, above all,
follow this line, be able to shape instinct, and give it a new ethical life. The
machine, in this sense, is the possibility, through technique and technology, to
expand the body and the place without territorializing it. An anti-war message
if we wish. Distant by the ethical dimension before the other, distant by a time
ruled by repetition, a machinal time used above all to remember. The
motivation to make a series of projects around landscapes, machines, and
animals arises from the need to think of a piece that is not exhausted in a single
performance, but that could dialogue with other works. The recurrence of the
landscape and the body as the landscape in my projects, even if not always in
an obvious way, determined this cycle of work that began with IO, will continue
with Neve [Snow], and will have the third part with Distante. This fictional
adventure should result in an inter-piece and intra-piece dialogue. Landscapes,
Machines, and Animals, the concepts involved here, show three vanishing
points in the definition of the human and, simultaneously, open themselves as
categories to think of the performing body. In all the pieces, these dimensions
are present and intersect, although the starting point for each one is
respectively in each of the dimensions. If in IO the body convokes the animal
and the mythological, the primitive and the technological, in Neve, the
landscape emerges in its variants, that is, landscape as the outside, the
exterior, the individual as intelligent landscape, the emotional and sound
landscape, the filmed image as narrative landscape. In Distante, we start from
the idea of a body-machine that allows us to work in this paradox of distant-
proximity and that starts from the technique as a fundamental tool for
humanization.
I dedicate this performance to our beloved José Álvaro Correia. — Né Barros
Direction and choreography | Né Barros
Music | Alexandre Soares
Set design | FAHR 021.3
Media Art | João Martinho Moura
Performed by | Afonso Cunha, Beatriz Valentim, Bruno Senune, Vivien Ingrams
Lighting design | Nuno Meira
Fencing | José Luís Guimarães
Costumes | Flávio Rodrigues
Executive production | Tiago Oliveira
Promotion | Andreia Fraga
Acknowledgment | Filipe Melo
Support ESGRIMA | Sport Club do Porto
Co-production Teatro Municipal do Porto, Balleteatro
Presentation dates
17th and 18th February | Teatro Municipal do Porto – Rivoli, Porto, PT
24th February | Teatro Municipal de Bragança, Bragança, PT
6th October | Espinho, PT
25th November | ílhavo, PT
Music | Alexandre Soares
Set design | FAHR 021.3
Media Art | João Martinho Moura
Performed by | Afonso Cunha, Beatriz Valentim, Bruno Senune, Vivien Ingrams
Lighting design | Nuno Meira
Fencing | José Luís Guimarães
Costumes | Flávio Rodrigues
Executive production | Tiago Oliveira
Promotion | Andreia Fraga
Acknowledgment | Filipe Melo
Support ESGRIMA | Sport Club do Porto
Co-production Teatro Municipal do Porto, Balleteatro
Presentation dates
17th and 18th February | Teatro Municipal do Porto – Rivoli, Porto, PT
24th February | Teatro Municipal de Bragança, Bragança, PT
6th October | Espinho, PT
25th November | ílhavo, PT