The interest for what precedes us, for what amounts to our construction, for what remains and what may come to pass. Palpably, Pastiche emerges from a reorganization of materials and compositions based upon existing premises of choreography. It is an organization of work that simultaneously embodies the research and enhancement of aesthetic figures and specific languages. Emerging from an appropriation of recognizable fragments, it aids in the constriction of a collective memory of choreographic writing and of the imagery of some of the most representative choreographers of the last two decades of Portuguese contemporary dance.
Ideas, shapes and sounds take us back through imagery that illustrates sensations, converging in an impartial space, where construction experiments with comparison, duplication and superimposition. Fragments that embrace the world and begin to exist in themselves.
Luiz Antunes e Sérgio Diogo Matias
Direction and artistic creation: Luiz Antunes, Sérgio Diogo Matias
Dancers: Flora Détraz, Luís Guerra, Sérgio Diogo Matias
Music: Diogo Alvim
Costumes: Aleksandar Protic
Light Design: Zeca Iglésias
Photography: Margarida Dias
Graphic Design: Miguel Bernardino
Artistic consultory: Gil Mendo
Production: Heurtebise
General Management: João Guimarães
Artistic Residence: Fórum Dança e Rumo do Fumo
Support: undação Calouste Gulbenkian, Companhia Olga Roriz, Bomba Suicida, E.E.D.C.Anna Mascolo, Fórum Dança, Nome Próprio, O Rumo do Fumo, Teatro Praga
Première: 13, 14 Dez 13,14 Dec 2014 > Clube Estefânia (Lisboa, PT), Festival Temps d’Images.
Pastiche surprises us. To revisit the lexicon and the creative processes of choreographers deemed emblematic of what is called the "new Portuguese dance" is both a relevant and risky proposition. Relevant, because dance, and in particular the Portuguese dance, needs to go over its recent legacy in a critical and updated perspective. Risky, because a pastiche is itself a sensitive area that can easily slip into sterile historicism or the exploitation of ridicule. But this is not the case. This Pastiche does have something of a documentary exercise, of a respectful quote and an ironic appropriation, all sophisticatedly articulated. The elimination of costumes, props, and even of iconic bodies in the coming-into-being of the different choreographic discourses lends them new qualities and dilutes, although not nullifying, their identity profile. Those who know well the work of the quoted choreographers find themselves challenged in their ability to identify what belongs to which. As for the others, it catches them off guard, earning their respect and adhesion to a heritage that asserts itself by the richness and variety it contains.
Maria de Assis