Cristina's curatorial practice started in 2011 by co-founding the artist-run platform desNORTE, which was crucial for the then-artistic-desert of Porto to develop a discourse.
Her integrated curatorial practice focuses on developing sustainable creative formats and new narratives in the performing arts, with a growing interest in experimental practices and hybrid formats that resonate politically and socially. An advocate of an artist-centered vision, she promotes deeper engagement with dialogue, work ethics, and equity, undeterred by institutional pressures. Her motivation lies at the intersection of curatorial, organizational, research, and educational practices, consistently blurring boundaries between disciplines, nationalities, and hierarchies, and approaching her role as a curator as that of a facilitator.
She is experienced in both the independent curatorial scene and the institutional field, with several years working as a programmer, artistic director, and co–managing director. This dual perspective enables her to navigate different models of artistic production, governance, and infrastructure while advocating for contextual and long-term approaches. Her curatorial practice is interdisciplinary, spanning theatre, dance and more hybrid formats, and extends from small venues to large-scale stages (up to 800 seats), across both seasonal programming and festival contexts.
For her, curation is an act of hospitality. Risk becomes a form of responsibility, and diversity is not treated as a checkbox, but as the lived reality of a plural cultural ecosystem. Her approach privileges long-term engagement and accompaniment, cultivating sustained relationships that allow processes, maturation, and transformation to unfold. She embraces a pedagogy of friction, creating contexts in which disagreement, contrast, and difference can be generative, rejecting self-censorship and inviting the encounter of perspectives, sensitivities, and contradictions as central to artistic practice and collective learning.
A performing arts curator, dramaturge, and choreographer, Cristina works as a consultant and curator for foundations, cultural organizations, and companies. Her integrated curatorial practice focuses on the development of sustainable creative formats, new narratives, and caring relationships within the performing arts, with a growing interest in experimental practices that are politically and socially engaged. She has a strong interest in the intersections of curatorial and organizational practices with research and education and possesses extensive knowledge of the contemporary dance and performance field. Over the years, Cristina has blurred the lines between disciplines, nationalities, and hierarchies, and she sees the role of the curator as a facilitator.
In 2025, she co-founded SUPERNOVÆ with Natalia Álvarez Simó (ES), a consulting and curatorial platform advocating for good practices in programming, including artistic and strategic consultancy for Cullberg, Sweden, in 2025, among others. In 2026, the pilot edition of MULΛ will take place in the city of Porto — an independent hybrid disciplinary festival that brings together several independent venues, transforming the idea of a festival into a convivial experience from sunset till dawn.
Since April 2025, she is the Artistic Director of Materiais Diversos (PT), one of the most significant independent structures accompanying artists’ trajectories in Portugal over the last 20 years, as well as its festival. There she initiated the seminar on curatorial practices FUTURA. Additionally, she takes over as the coordinator of the Artistic Research Module at ArtEZ – Bachelor in Arts / Dance Artist.
During her tenure from 2018 to 2024 as curator and later Artistic Director at Teatro Municipal do Porto, DDD – Festival Dias da Dança, and CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva, she left a transformative legacy. Highlights include launching the CAMPUS residency center in 2021, expanding the institution’s reach, and fostering the institution’s international collaborations.
As Artistic Director, Cristina managed two venues:
The regular multidisciplinary season, running from September to July, featured approximately 60 to 80 productions annually from local, national, and international artists, with most projects being co-productions. Additionally, Cristina oversaw and programmed DDD – Festival Dias da Dança, a contemporary dance festival held in April across Porto, Gaia, and Matosinhos, presenting around 30 works per edition. The residency center, Paulo Cunha e Silva, offered daily expanded practices, open calls for artistic residencies, and research programs.
Cristina has served as an artistic consultant for the Braga’27 application for Capital of Culture, was part of the direction of REDE, and has participated in several jury panels, including:
She is also a nominator for the SEDA Award on behalf of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
bactéria associação cultural
bactéria is a non-profit cultural association, funded in May 2015, in Porto, focused on the artistic and curatorial practices of Cristina Planas Leitão and associates.
Artistic Direction
Cristina Planas Leitão
