The invitation addressed to Sofia Neuparth to work with the Portuguese National Conservatory School of Dance (EDCN) was aimed at providing young students access to the experience of freedom in dance by exploring practices linked to or inspired by eurhythmics and the free dances from the start of the century, in particular the Dalcroze method (whose introduction in Portugal, in the 1930s, was largely due to the work of women such as Cecil Kitkat, Sosso Doukas-Schau and Margarida de Abreu).   

“After being invited to introduce Portugal’s early-20th-century “Free Dance” to a set of first- and second-year dancers from the National Conservatory School of Dance, I launched myself on a journey into the different forms of bodily expression “unblocked” in the West in the late 19th/early 20th century; I dived into the rhythmic and melodic complexity that Dalcroze sought to verify, and I (we) opened, side by side, the taste of Freedom in Dance, the sensation of movement that appears between the bodies and the music that insists in inhabiting the imagination of each one of us. Thus was coração-mão [heart-hand] born… which continues to give birth to this love.”

— Sofia Neuparth

Between the two sessions of this performance, there will be a talk with Sofia Neuparth, the EDCN students and Ana Paz, moderated by Ana Dinger.

On the same day, under the theme of Free dances, the performances No body never mind 002, by Ana Borralho & João Galante, and A Boca do Atlas [The Mouth of the Atlas], by Gaya de Medeiros and Ary Zara, will also be presented, followed by another talk with the artists.

dance not dance

This event is included in the (re)performances, films and talks series which constitutes the first part of dance not dance – archaeologies of the new dance in Portugal. More info.