Diana Niepce is one of the most remarkable artists on the Portuguese contemporary dance scene. She is a choreographer, dancer, researcher and writer, known for her defiant, sensitive, groundbreaking and extremely rigorous work, where she radically expands the limits of the body, of movement and of dance itself.
- O ESPAÇO DO TEMPO
I am interested in observing the dance archive and understanding the hierarchy that organizes the body. Approaching the other side of dance, and understanding the secret of movement. The body has not always been excluded and how the body finds its place. Looking at history and understanding in an experimental way, in the dance genre, the chronology of this other side of dance and through it challenging my body. Body that here represents matter, and presents the mapping of the representation of the invisible in the history of dance.
The work is structured around the study and deep analysis of the physics and movement of artists outside the norm, appropriating and transforming the language into an identity of its own. It is artists such as Artur Zmijewski, Bill Shannon, Claire Cunningham, David Toole, Neil Marcus, Michael Turinsky, Lisa Bufano, Raimund Hoghe who give voice and allow the emergence of this new body.
BIO & CREDITS
DIANA NIEPCE. Dancer, choreographer and writer, graduated from the School of Dance (ESD) and Erasmus at Helsinki Theater academy (Teak). She completed her studies with a Performing Arts Management and Production Course, at Forum Dança, Hatha-yoga teacher course and a post-graduation in Art and Communication at New university of lisbon (UNL). Creator of the pieces “Raw a Nude” (2019) with Mariana Tengner Barros, “12 979 Days” (2019), “Duet” (2020), “T4” (2020) and “Anda, Diana” (2021). As a contemporary dancer and performer, she collaborated with Bail-Moderne with Company Rosas, Felix Ruckert, Willi Dorner, António Tagliarini, Daria Deflorian, La fura del baus, May Joseph, Sofia Varino, Miira Sippola, Jérome Bel, Ana Borralho and João Galante, Ana Rita Barata and Pedro Sena Nunes, Mariana Tengner Barros, Rui Catalão, Rafael Alvarez, Adam Benjamin, Diana de Sousa and Justyna Wielgus. Published an article in the book “Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Lisbon” (ed. Egeac / INCM), the children’s short story “Bayadére” (ed. CNB), the poem “2014” in the magazine Flanzine, the article “Experimentar o corpo” in the performing arts journal Coreia, and the book “Anda, Diana” (ed. Sistema Solar). Jury of the 2018 Acesso Cultura prize, official Jury of the International screendance festival Inshadow 2018 and Jury of the application NCED – Eu solidarity 2021.
Artistic Direction and Performer: Diana Niepce
Creation & Movement Support, Performer Assistance: Ana Sofia Leite
Investigation Support: Carlos Oliveira
Sound Design: Gonçalo Alegria
Light Design: Carlos Ramos
Light Operation: Pedro Sousa
Costume Design: Silvana Ivaldi
Scenography: Bruno Capucho – Ohcupa
Rigging: Telma Pinto e Ricardo Paz
Head of Production and Managing: Filipe Metelo e Patrícia Soares
House of Production: Produção d’Fusão
Artistic Residence: PACT Zollverein (DE), Biblioteca de Marvila – CML, O Espaço do Tempo, Oliva Creative Factory – CMSJM, Teatro da Cerca de São Bernardo
Coproduction: Festival Citemor
Support: Direção Geral das Artes | Ministério da Cultura, Fundação GDA
Rui Horta started dancing at the age of 17 at Ballet Gulbenkian. He studied, taught and performed in New York for several years. In 1990, he founded the S.O.A.P Dance Theater Frankfurt, where he created, over 7 years, six programs which toured all over the world. From 1998 to 2000 he worked in Munich, at the Muffathalle, where he created “Bones & Oceans”, “Zeitraum” and “Blindspot”. In August 2000, he returned to Portugal (Montemor-o-Novo), where he founded the multidisciplinary center for research and creation O Espaço do Tempo.
Patrícia Portela is a writer and performance maker born in 1974, living between Belgium and Portugal. She studied set and costume design in Lisbon and in Utrecht where she made her master of arts, she has studied film in Ebeltoft at the European Film College, Denmark, and has a master in Philosophy from the International Institute of Leuven, Belgium. She is a founder member of the Prado cultural association since 2003 and a curator at the collective editions Prado since 2008. Patrícia Portela writes chronicles for Jornal de Letras, Jornal do Centro and Coffeepaste. She was the Artistic Director of Teatro Viriato from March 2020 to February 2022.
