The show comprises stroboscopics effects inadvisable for pregnant women, epileptic people or ones who have pace maker.
23 Jan, after the performance / Post-show discussion with coreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas, moderated by Tamás Bakó and Zsuzsa Rózsavölgyi dancers and coreographers.
Stone, wax, wood, metal, ivory and other materials have been used by man since the beginning of time to create bodies, figures and mechanical puppets… physically and emotionally crafted, symbols of the virtual world, deified or subjects of fantasy, they mimic real life and at the same time trick death.
In Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’, the story of Pygmalion (which develops as part of the myth of Orpheus) is a song of hope through resurrection. In this story inside a story, which focusses on the theme of transgression, death and earthly limits are defied through desire. The performance is characterised by the contradictory concepts of statues (a metaphor for stillness), society balls (a metaphor for movement), and fossilisation (a metaphor for the transformation of humans into statues, rooted to the spot where they are transformed).
The subtitle of this project refers to Alain Resnais and Chris Marker’s 1953 work ‘Les statues meurent aussi / Statues also die’. The French word ‘souffrir’ (‘suffer’) means to both physically suffer (to be in pain) and to wait (as does, for example, an unclaimed package at the post office). In this project the dancers’ bodies/statues ‘suffer through reminiscences’, their agile bodies becoming battered, their gestures reflecting intense reminiscences from the past.
Choreography: Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Performance: Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Andreas Merk, Betty Tchomanga, Lander Patrick, Cookie (percussion), Tomás Moital (percussion), Miguel Filipe (percussion).
Light and space: Yannick Fouassier
Live music: Cookie (percussion)
Edition and sound: Tiago Cerqueira
Research: João Francisco Figueira, Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Produced by P.OR.K (Lisbon, PT)
Distribution: Key Performance (Stockholm, SE)
Co-production: O Espaço do Tempo, Montemor-o-Novo (PT), Alkantara Festival, Lisbon (PT), Maria Matos Teatro Municipal, Lisbon (PT), Bomba Suicida, Lisbon (with the support of DGArtes, PT), CCN Rillieux-la-pape, direction Yuval Pick, Rilleux-la-pape (FR), Musée de la danse, Rennes (FR), Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR), Festival Montpellier Danse 2014, Montpellier (FR), ARCADI, Paris (FR), le CDC – centre de développement chorégraphique de Toulouse/Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse (FR), Théâtre National de Bordeaux en Aquitaine, Bordeaux (FR), Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Bruxelas (BE), WP Zimmer, Antwerp (NL), NXTSTP (with the support of the EU Culture Programme).
With the support of ACCCA - Companhia Clara Andermatt, DNA
Acknowledgements: Staresgrime (PT), Dr. Ephraim Nold
Marlene Monteiro Freitas was born in Cabo Verde where she co-founded and was a member of the dance group Compass, and also collaborated with the musician Vasco Martins. After studying dance at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), E.S.D. and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon), she began to develop a dance project with the community of Cova da Moura (Lisbon), entitled ‘We will not have dance classes, we will rehearse’.
Her creations include Of ivory and flesh - statues also suffer (2014); Paradise - private collection (2012-13); (M)imosa(2011), a project developed with Trajal Harell, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea; Guintche (2010); A Seriedade do Animal(2009-10); Uns e Outros (2008); A Improbabilidade da Certeza (2006); Larvar (2006); Primeira Impressão (2005). The common factor in these works is openness, impurity and intensity. She has worked with Emmanuelle Huynn, Loic Touzé, Tânia Carvalho, and Boris Charmatz among others. She is a co-founder of P.OR.K.
of ivory and flesh - statues also suffer | 2014
Portuguese Première – Festival Alkantara / Lisboa – Maio 2014 Teatro Maria Matos
French Première – Montpellier Danse – Montpellier – França – Junho 2014
23 Jan, after the performance / Post-show discussion with coreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas, moderated by Tamás Bakó and Zsuzsa Rózsavölgyi dancers and coreographers.
Stone, wax, wood, metal, ivory and other materials have been used by man since the beginning of time to create bodies, figures and mechanical puppets… physically and emotionally crafted, symbols of the virtual world, deified or subjects of fantasy, they mimic real life and at the same time trick death.
In Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’, the story of Pygmalion (which develops as part of the myth of Orpheus) is a song of hope through resurrection. In this story inside a story, which focusses on the theme of transgression, death and earthly limits are defied through desire. The performance is characterised by the contradictory concepts of statues (a metaphor for stillness), society balls (a metaphor for movement), and fossilisation (a metaphor for the transformation of humans into statues, rooted to the spot where they are transformed).
The subtitle of this project refers to Alain Resnais and Chris Marker’s 1953 work ‘Les statues meurent aussi / Statues also die’. The French word ‘souffrir’ (‘suffer’) means to both physically suffer (to be in pain) and to wait (as does, for example, an unclaimed package at the post office). In this project the dancers’ bodies/statues ‘suffer through reminiscences’, their agile bodies becoming battered, their gestures reflecting intense reminiscences from the past.
Choreography: Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Performance: Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Andreas Merk, Betty Tchomanga, Lander Patrick, Cookie (percussion), Tomás Moital (percussion), Miguel Filipe (percussion).
Light and space: Yannick Fouassier
Live music: Cookie (percussion)
Edition and sound: Tiago Cerqueira
Research: João Francisco Figueira, Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Produced by P.OR.K (Lisbon, PT)
Distribution: Key Performance (Stockholm, SE)
Co-production: O Espaço do Tempo, Montemor-o-Novo (PT), Alkantara Festival, Lisbon (PT), Maria Matos Teatro Municipal, Lisbon (PT), Bomba Suicida, Lisbon (with the support of DGArtes, PT), CCN Rillieux-la-pape, direction Yuval Pick, Rilleux-la-pape (FR), Musée de la danse, Rennes (FR), Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR), Festival Montpellier Danse 2014, Montpellier (FR), ARCADI, Paris (FR), le CDC – centre de développement chorégraphique de Toulouse/Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse (FR), Théâtre National de Bordeaux en Aquitaine, Bordeaux (FR), Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Bruxelas (BE), WP Zimmer, Antwerp (NL), NXTSTP (with the support of the EU Culture Programme).
With the support of ACCCA - Companhia Clara Andermatt, DNA
Acknowledgements: Staresgrime (PT), Dr. Ephraim Nold
Marlene Monteiro Freitas was born in Cabo Verde where she co-founded and was a member of the dance group Compass, and also collaborated with the musician Vasco Martins. After studying dance at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), E.S.D. and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon), she began to develop a dance project with the community of Cova da Moura (Lisbon), entitled ‘We will not have dance classes, we will rehearse’.
Her creations include Of ivory and flesh - statues also suffer (2014); Paradise - private collection (2012-13); (M)imosa(2011), a project developed with Trajal Harell, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea; Guintche (2010); A Seriedade do Animal(2009-10); Uns e Outros (2008); A Improbabilidade da Certeza (2006); Larvar (2006); Primeira Impressão (2005). The common factor in these works is openness, impurity and intensity. She has worked with Emmanuelle Huynn, Loic Touzé, Tânia Carvalho, and Boris Charmatz among others. She is a co-founder of P.OR.K.
of ivory and flesh - statues also suffer | 2014
Portuguese Première – Festival Alkantara / Lisboa – Maio 2014 Teatro Maria Matos
French Première – Montpellier Danse – Montpellier – França – Junho 2014
