This exhibition is the latest instalment in a project devoted to tracing the chronologies of the history of contemporary dance in Portugal. The project began in 2016 and has been carried out intermittently. Its previous editions were hosted by Teatro Viriato, Teatro Sá da Bandeira, Escola Superior de Dança, and the Serralves Museum.

Despite being the latest instalment, it is the first to establish itself as a major exhibition on dance in Portugal. It is based on audiovisual records and archival material (publications, ephemera, photographs, personal notebooks, props, etc.), where landmark moments in the history of dance are viewed within the wider framework of Portugal’s cultural history. Events in the history of dance as well as social, political, cultural, biographic, and artistic events are displayed side by side.

The endeavour intends to signpost moments that have influenced authors, practices, and institutions, and can therefore be viewed against the wider backdrop of both the transformations of Portuguese society and the discourse on the choreographic. The result is a study tool that makes it possible to add, correct, and remove information and, above all, to generate and multiply connections and narratives.

It is an open-ended and ongoing process undergoing mutations with every new edition and leading to a physical and methodological reconfiguration of the project, which is forced to rethink itself.