TÂNIA CARVALHO

For SÍNCOPA the Portuguese choreographer Tânia Carvalho took inspiration from the writings of another Portuguese artist, Valter Hugo Mãe. The result is an enchanting solo of pure physicality. Carvalho focuses her attention on what lies under the skin, in the organs and bones. The solo is as pure and bold as Mãe’s poetic lines: “Heart and guts, legs and mouth get inside the bones. Each pool of blood, each corner of an eye, the sharpened nails, even the gasping nostrils, everything gets inside the bones. The opaque surface of the bones, stony and freezing, acknowledges no one’s presence. Thus you become alone. The confined, the inner gesture, nearly impossible, a gesture which is thought, merely thought, even though it can be just about anything. Thus you become alone.”

Trained in classical and contemporary dance, the Portuguese artist Tânia Carvalho moved to Lisbon in 1995. In 1997 she began her career as a choreographer and in the same year launched a biennial training programme in contemporary dance for performers at the Forum Dança (Lisbon). There she met Filipe Viegas and Clara Sena, who invited her to join a newly created group called Bomba Suicida. Tânia Carvalho is co-founder of this group, with whom she continues to develop her work. In 2005 she attended the choreography course on the artistic and creative programme funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon). Tânia Carvalho also explores the realms of music, which has resulted in projects such as Ideolecto (2013), Moliquentos (2011), Trash Nymph (2008) and Madmud (2007). She has studied piano and music theory with João Aleixo, Diogo Alvim and Yuri Popov. In addition, she maintains some contact with the plastic arts and sporadically devotes time to drawing.

During the first SÂLMON< festival, Tânia Carvalho presented Icosahedron, with twenty dancers onstage.

Choreography and performance Tânia Carvalho
Rehearsal assistant Petra von Gompel
Music Nada de Tânia Carvalho
Text Valter Hugo Mãe
Production/marketing Sofia Matos
Production Bomba Suicida
Co-production and artistic residency O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo)
With the support of Alkantara (Lisbon), Re.aL (Lisbon) / Acknowledgements Régis Estreich

Tânia Carvalho is a modul-dance selected artist

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