For SINCOPA the Portuguese choreographer Tânia Carvalho found her inspiration in the writings of another Portuguese artist, Valter Hugo Mãe. The result is a spellbinding solo of pure physicality. Seeking to address what is under the skin, Carvalho unfolds the organs and bones of the dancing body, her movements emerging as an expressively revealing language. In almost complete darkness, waving her arms and pounding her feet on the floor, she takes the audience deep into her corporeality.
Carvalho is acclaimed for her personal movement style, which is a clear break from the tradition of abstraction. The solo is as pure and bold as the poetic lines of Valter Hugo Mãe: ‘He endures like someone who dies slowly and slowly devotes himself to the silence or the groan. Until he doesn’t say anything else in order to coincide entirely with who he is.’
Video trailer:
Co-production and artistic residency: O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo). Support: Alkantara (Lisboa), Re.aL (Lisboa). Acknowledgements: Régis Estreich