“My mother is called Miquelina and was born in 1935. For most of her life, she has lived in Mozambique. Recently, she was diagnosed with dementia. I have contradictory feelings about this situation: on the one hand, dealing with the fear of her faculties decaying, on the other hand, allowing myself to and access a new level of understanding, somewhere between madness, tenderness and closeness. Today, I look at my mother and I recognise myself more than ever. The unimaginable, that madness which sometimes assails me, the experience of failure and ridicule, scars which, unknowingly, I have inherited from her, and which only now, with the gradual degeneration of her memory, I can see and understand. I discovered that my mother has a sense of humour and likes to dance. Together, we laugh and get silly, do crazy stuff. And, in a kind of parallel reality, for a few moments we are happy.”

— Miguel Pereira

The present moment, memory and its loss are the guiding threads of Miquelina e Miguel [Miquelina and Miguel], where choreographer Miguel Pereira seeks to redeem a new, tragicomic relationship with his mother. Meanwhile, in the interstices, in their words and gestures, the brutal complexity of 20th-century Portugal, which Luís Trindade will later address in conversation, delicately unfolds. A delirious and caring encounter in which dance, the absurd and fragility are celebrated in a limitlessly free space. An attempt to counteract the passage of time and escape the inevitable, while Estado Novo dictatorship’s light music mixes with Hollywood icons.

The performance is followed by a talk between Miguel Pereira and Luís Trindade, moderated by Ana Bigotte Vieira.

As part of a dance not dance programme, Miguelina e Miguel dialogues with Marlene Monteiro Freitas’ performance Idiota [Idiot], presented on 9 and 10 January. Even though diametrically opposed, coloniality is present in their works not as a theme but as lived experience, with all the challenges that it entails for modern societies. The contrast between the scarcity of references to the colonial past in Portuguese dance archives and its everyday presence will also be addressed in Unearthing memories of dance, a discussion between Piny, Angela Guerreiro and Désirée Desmarattes, moderated by Cristina Roldão.

Image © Joana Linda

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.