Drawing on the myth of Pygmalion and Alain Resnais and Chris Marker’s Les Statues Meurent Aussi (Statues Also Die), Monteiro Freitas’ dance performance explores, through the event of a ball, the entanglement of notions of visibility, mobility, animation, resurrection, the image and its double, the icon… The ball is a luminous-obscure occasion, thought to be a receptacle for ghosts, which harbors in its nature much of life and death.

Dance performance, 80’, 2014

Choreography: Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Performed by: Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Andreas Merk, Betty Tchomanga, Lander Patrick, Cookie (percussion), Tomás Moital (percussion), Miguel Filipe (percussion). Light and space: Yannick Fouassier. Live music: Cookie (percussion), Tiago Cerqueira (editing and sound). Research: João Francisco Figueira, Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Distribution: Key Performance (Stockholm). Production: P.O.R.K (Lisbon). Co-Production: O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo), Alkantara Festival (Lisbon), Maria Matos Teatro Municipal (Lisbon), Bomba Suicida (Lisbon, with the support of DGArtes, Portugal), CNN (Rillieux-la-Pape), Musée de la danse (Rennes), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Festival Montpellier Danse 2014 (Montpellier), ARCADI (Paris), CDC Toulouse/Midi-Pyrénnées (Toulouse), Théâtre national de Bordeaux en Aquitaine (Bordeaux), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), WP Zimmer (Antwerp), NXTSTP (with the support of the EU Culture Programme); with the support of ACCCA - Companhia Clara Andermatt (Lisbon). Acknowledgements: Staresgrime (PT), Dr. Ephraim Nold.

Photo credit: Pierre Planchenault