v a s t n e s s

An open-air performance for 16 dancers

v a s t n e s s plays with the basic structure of diagonals present in staged dance in order to engender an intricate kinetic game, where approximations and distances, additions and subtractions meet planning and experience, control and empathy. 

Part of the COVERED BY SKY collection, alongside v a s t n e s s, choreographer Gustavo Ciríaco draws inspiration from a spatial experience lived by choreographer Michelle Moura to translate her spatial poetics into the public space. From her challenges experienced in the public space, sometimes too large and hostile, passing by her experiences of its dissolution and transformation in the body of raves until the sensorial diving into the primordials of breathing and seeing, for the Brazilian choreographer Michelle Moura, landscape has been a gradual experience of conquering space, a space in continuous derivation. With this intricate way of experiencing landscape in mind,   v a s t n e s s  uses the shared space between the performers and the audience as a field for interactive action, blending empathy, attention, sensation and awareness, inviting the audience to join the dancers and to experience this unique immersion in the body’s movements, where running becomes dance.

v a s t n e s s has been seen at DDD Festival & Serralves Museum (Porto), Centro Cultural Belém (Lisbon), Festival Int. de Danza Contemporanea – FIDCU (Montevideo), SESC Vila Mariana (São Paulo), Materiais Diversos (Minde) and NAVE (Santiago).

COVERED BY SKY Collection

Conceived by the Brazilian choreographer Gustavo Ciríaco, the COVERED BY SKY collection launches a series of interactive installations and performances inspired by the striking landscape experiences of South American and Portuguese artists. Driven by a curiosity about how artists perceive and express the world through space, as well as the intersection between art, space and poetic signature, Ciríaco embarks on a journey of discovery through the spatial poetics of these creators and their unique ways of reflecting the world. 

The project revisits the experiences of the Portuguese artists Jonathan Uliel Saldanha (Music), Cláudia Dias (Dance), João Gabriel Oliveira (Painting), Miguel Palma (Sculpture), the Brazilian artists João Saldanha (Dance), Luciana Lara (Dance) and Michelle Moura (Dance), the Argentinian artists Ana Laura Lozza and Barbara Hang (Dance), and the Chilean artist Javiera Peón-Veiga (Dance and Performance). Despiting working across different fields of art, these artists share a common thread: the notion of territory and its poetic transformation into a universe of their own. By delving into the works and engaging in dialogue with Portuguese and South American artists, the desire has been to reflect on how these spatial poetics encompass cultural antecedents and how they relate to what the sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos argues in his *Epistemologies of the South*: the diversity of perspectives and knowledge of the world, the wisdom that non-dominant women and men have acquired in dealing with the world throughout history.

Designed for indoor public spaces (halls, galleries) and outdoor public spaces (courtyards, parks or gardens), the project sets itself the challenge of devising ways to interpret and re-create landscape experiences, with the aim of enabling the public to sensorially re-experience the striking landscapes encountered by artists and to gain a unique insight into their spatial creations.

For images of the collection,  HERE.

GUEST ARTIST

Michelle Moura (Curitiba, BR) is a choreographer and dancer. She has lived in Berlin since 2017 and continues to develop collaborations in Brazil. In minimal and detailed pieces she creates physical restrictions to explore psychological and physical changes. Her creations have been presented in international dance and performing arts festivals including Impulstanz (AU), Festival Panorama (BR), La Biennale di Venezia (IT). Overtongue (2020), BLINK mini unison intense lament (2015) and FOLE (2013) are her main pieces where the physical, affective and neurological capacities of the body are key points in her work. Mainly an author in her own right, Michelle also performs for other artists. As a dancer, she currently works with Lea Moro (CH), and has worked with Wilhelm Groener (DE), Vincent Dupont (FR), among others. Between 2010 and 2008, she studied at the Center National de la Danse Contemporaine d’Angers (FR) under the direction of Emmanuelle Huyhn and studied for a Masters at Das Choreography (2015-2013) in Amsterdam.

Video 1 – work in progress

Video 2  – work in progress

Centro Cultural de Belém – CCB. June 22 and 23, 2024. Lisbon, Portugal.

Materiais Diversos.  Sep 29, 2024. Alcanena, Portugal.

SESC Vila Mariana. May 11 and 12, 2024. São Paulo, Brazil.

Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporanea de Uruguay – FIDCU. Dia 7 de Setembro, 2023.

Festival DDD & Museu de Serralves, Porto. May 23, 2022.  Première.

Espaço do Tempo. Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. March 29 – April 6. Residency.

Fundição Progresso & Museu de Arte Moderna-MAM. Residency  + public sharing. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Dec 20-22, 2021.

NAVE. Santiago, Chile.  Dec 16-17, 2021. Avant-première.

Residencies

NAVE. Santiago, Chile. Dec 6-15, 2021.

Cia Instável e Museu Serralves. Porto, Portugal. May 10-14, 2021.

ZDB / Novo Negócio Lisbon, Portugal. May 3-7, 2021.

Casa de Cultura de Ílhavo & Fábrica das ideias/23 Milhas. Ílhavo, Portugal. April 6-18, 2021.

ZDB / Novo Negócio. Lisbon, Portugal. March 1-20, 2021.

 

V A S T N E S S

conception & choreography Gustavo Ciríaco (Br/Pt)

guest artist Michelle Moura

direction assistance Bibi Dória

performers – São Paulo Alini Massê, Bruno Levorin, Claudiana Honório, Felipe Stocco, Filipe Caldeira, Giovanna Herrera, Gustavo Cabral, Janaina Carrer, João Victor Cavalcanti, Laura Samy, Manoella Brunelli, Mariana Pimentel, Margot de Castro, Mayara Baptista, Patricia Árabe, René Carvalho, Tankian Pela City, Vinicius Brasileiro

performers – Porto  Alina Folini (Ar), Bartosz Ostrowski (Pl), Filipe Caldeira (Pt), Gabriela Dória (Br),  Giulia Romitelli (It),  Mário Martins Fonseca (Pt), Sara Zita Correia (Pt) and Tiago Barbosa (Pt), with the participation of  Alessandra Giacobbe(It), Alexa Papa(Ro), Bárbara Ramos(Pt), Eleanor Winkler (Pt), Inês Oliveira(Pt), Inês Pinheiro Torres(Pt), Katarina Llijasevic (Serbia), Lucia Nordhoff (De), María Poncela(Sp), Uatumã Azevedo (Br), from the programmes FAICC and FOCAR / Instável Centro Coreográfico

performers – Santiago Belén Alfaro (CL), Paz Marin (CL), Francisco Bagnara (CL), Luche Moreno (CL), Trude Flem (CL) y Joaquín Catalán (CL), Camila Peña (CL), Sara Lecaros(CL), Danya Jerez (CL), Macarena Alvarez (CL), Octavia Luz (CL) and Andrea Contreras

performers – Rio de Janeiro Bruno Levorin (Br), João Victor Cavalcanti (Br), Leo Nabuco (Br), Laura Samy (Br), Milena Codeço (Br), Priscila Maia (Br) and Rómulo Galvão (Br)

performers – Montevideo André Guido, Cecilia Placeres, Fac Mercadal, Facundo Trinidad, Florencia Zinno, Gabriel Sosa, Gianna Sabia, Guidaí Presno, Guillermina Gancio, Joaquín Nuñez, Maria Pintado, Paola Nargoli, Paola Pilatti Conde, Patricia Fry, Pilar Parada, Natalia Coirolo and Mariana Padrón

music  António Saraiva (original compositions), Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

costumes Raphael Fraga

production direction Carol Gameiro (Portugal) and Priscila Maia (Brazil)

administration and financial management Missanga Antunes – Efémera Colecção (Pt), Priscila Maia – Dos Vôos (Br)

co-production Nave – Centro de Residência e Creación (Cl), Fundição Progresso (Br), Serralves- Museu de Arte Contemporânea (Pt)

partnership Instável – Centro Coreográfico, through the programmes FAICC and FOCAR

residency support ZDB / Novo Negócio (Lisbon), 23 Milhas (Ílhavo), Instável – Centro Coreográfico, Serralves- Museu de Arte Contemporânea (Porto), Nave (Santiago), MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna (Rio de Janeiro), Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo)

financial support República Portuguesa – Cultura | DgARTES – Direção-Geral das Artes

Covered by the Sky has counted with  IBERESCENA´s  2020-2021 Co-production Support | Apoio à Co-produção de Espetáculo 2020-2021

 

 

p h o t o g r a p h y  

André Delhaye, Felipe Pardo, Filipe Sardinha,  Mila Ercoli e Antonella Moltini