Manifest. Raw, rude, about doubt and power. I put the pelvic space in the arena as a taboo, as a producer of movement, as a physical space that contains reproductive and sexual organs, holes and erogenous zones. Trauma and pleasure.
It is a combat, entertainment, a club, a sacred space, a cabaret, a room. It is an explosion cry but very contained about the private and the public, the rituals of before and today; everything without a defined geography, except the body. I bring the Hottentot Venus and assume the power that was taken from her as much as the deep pain of the exposure to which she was subjected. I grab and transform. I travel through time, through the feminine and masculine of being a woman in a social and political space of power and vulnerability, in the demand for freedom, fun, pleasure and trauma. It is the claim of the space of the body (ies), the liberation from fear, leaving the body ahead in the fight.
Human being.
Born in Lisbon, daughter of Angolan parents. Started Middle Eastern Dance classes in 1999 and in 2003 the focus is shared with Hip Hop culture. Finished a BA in Architecture and after in Dance and started the company Orchidaceae, where she seeks a common space for Urban Dances, Clubbing, Contemporary Dance and Fusion Belly Dance. As a performer she worked with Filipa Francisco, Tiago Guedes, Victor Hugo Pontes, Ricardo Ambrózio, Tânia Carvalho, Cristina Planas Leitão and Marco da Silva Ferreira. Her first creation “(i)logical body”, premiered at Emerging Creators – 2011. She choreographs for her company and also highlights “Periférico” by Vhils. In 2019 “HIP. A pussy point of view” debuts. Currently she’s preparing her new creation “.G Rito”. Since 2014 she teaches internationally.
Concept, choreography, performance and HIPzine Piny
Sound design Pedro Coquenão
Lighting design Carolina Caramelo
Video edition Maria Antunes
Costumes Veronique Divine and Piny
Dance research with Blaya, Louise L’Amour, Catarina Branco, Stella Capapelo, Carina Russo, Ariane Magri
Co-production of Teatro Municipal do Porto / DDD – Festival Dias da Dança
Artistic residencies Teatro Municipal do Porto – Teatro do Campo Alegre / O Espaço do Tempo / Estúdio Victor Córdon – artistic residencies
Bold and feverish, this solo piece by Anaísa Lopes (a.k.a. Piny) is a trance-inducing examination of the woman’s body focusing on its most sacred and violated core: the pelvic space, as the author puts it. Drilling on historical archetypes of female objectification and sexuality such as Saartjie Baartman (infamously known as the Hottentot Venus) and belly dance icons, HiP. A Pussy Point of View brings us forward towards its YouTube-era reincarnations (the hypersexual female bodies of the hip-hop and other urban music scenes, and most especially Brazilian funk, a very widespread genre in some Portuguese contexts), inviting all sorts of physical, ethological, aesthetic, social and political digressions.
Overall, it is a fascinating, feisty journey into the inner workings of a dancing female body, taken as both an erogenous and a war zone. Either you experience it as an in-yer-face statement on the power of the pelvis, despite all the traumas and aggressions inflicted upon it from time immemorial, or as a contagious, joyful celebration of its infinite possibilities, HiP. A Pussy Point of View is an absolute must-see.
Inês Nadais
CONTACTS
Mickael de Oliveira was born in France, in 1984, and has lived in Portugal since 1999. In 2013, he got his Ph.D. in contemporary Portuguese and European dramaturgy from the School of Humanities – University of Lisbon, where he is post-doctoral fellow researching the presence of literature in contemporary theatre and dance. In 2008, Mickael founded Colectivo 84, the theatre company for which he develops playwriting and directing projects. His work O que é teu entregou aos mortais was distinguished with the Maria Matos New Playwriting Award (Maria Matos Municipal Theatre, 2007), and Clytemnestra received an Honorable Mention – António José da Silva Prize (D. Maria II National Theatre, Lisbon / FUNARTE, Brazil, 2012). Some of his most recent productions include Oslo–Fuck Them All and Everything Will Be Wonderful (co-created with Nuno M Cardoso, Gil Vicente Academic Theatre, São Luiz Municipal Theatre), The Constitution (2016, Dona Maria National Theatre), and the diptych Socrates Must Die (Socrates’ Death / The Life of John Smith, 2017/2018, Vila Flor Cultural Centre, São Luiz Municipal Theatre, Viriato Theatre, Gil Vicente Academic Theatre. Mickael has served as the artistic director of END – New Dramaturgy Encounters, a project that aims to foster new Portuguese and international playwriting (1st edition at the São Luiz Municipal Theatre, Lisbon, Nov. 2010; 2nd and 3rd editions at the Gil Vicente Academic Theatre, March, Coimbra, 2015/2019). He was Assistant Professor of Arts Administration and Artistic Studies at the School of Education and Humanities (Leiria), guest Lecturer at the School of Theatre and Film Studies (Lisbon), and guest Assistant Professor at the School of Humanities – University of Coimbra. From September 2011 to August 2015, Mickael was Assistant Artistic Director of the Gil Vicente Academic Theatre (Coimbra).
Patrícia Portela is a writer and performance maker born in 1974, living between Belgium and Portugal. She has a BA in set and costume design by the high school of theatre and cinema of Lisbon, a Masters of Arts in scenography and dramaturgy of space from the University of Utrecht and Saint Martins college of art in Antwerp, a post-graduation in theatricality and performativity from APT in Antwerp, a film stage at the European film school in Ebeltoft, Denmark, and a Masters in Philosophy of the University of Leuven, Belgium. Since 2003 she has worked on her own performances and installations in collaboration with international artists. She has achieved national and international recognition for her unusual work and is considered one of the most daring artists and innovative writers of her generation. She won the Revelation Prize in 1994 for her creative work in performance and cinema, the Prize Teatro na Década for T5 in 1999, the Gulbenkian Foundation Prize Madalena de Azeredo Perdigão for the performance Flatland I in 2004 and was one of the 5 finalists of the Sonae Media Art Prize 2015 with her installation Parasomnia, amongst other prizes. She has been invited to participate in the prestigious International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa in 2013 and to be the first Outreach Fellow. She was the first literary resident in Berlin in 2016, sponsored by the Portuguese Embassy in Germany/Instituto Camões. She lectures “dramaturgy and space” and “image” regularly at Universities and cultural centers in Portugal (such as University of Minho or University of Lisbon) and abroad (University of Antwerp, Escola de Escrita in Curitiba, etc). She is the author of several novels, short stories and performances, such as Dias úteis (2016, considered one of the books of the year by several reviewers) or Banquet (finalist at the Novel Prize of APE 2012). She is a chronicle writer for the prestigious Jornal de Letras since 2017 and for the National Radio Antena 1.
Rui Horta was one of the most influencial choreographers of his generation, his work being presented all over the world such as the Theatre de la Ville, that co-produced it for over a decade. He directed S.O.A.P. at the Mousonturm, and created for many companies such as NDT, Cullberg, Geneva, Gotemburg, etc. 
