UM [unimal] is a solo that invokes the idea of how one lone body can represent a collective and common history, by way of a macro-research about the place of dance, specifically of dances of resistance and of political & social movements and their impact in our survival and manifestation of today’s bodies.
UM [unimal]
Cristina Planas Leitão
2018
The pivotal theme – SURVIVAL unfolds in two sub-vectors: SUBSISTENCE, after a disappearance, which maintains a connection with the previous piece FM [featuring mortuum], and PERMANENCE of traditions from past times, throughout the research on movements of resistance that rise as a structured and collective effort against an installed authority.
UM [unimal] intends to investigate a continuous physicality in the virtuosity of its limits over a body that fights to remain on stage and whose perseverance and exhaustion contaminate and attract, such as a gladiator in an arena, the marathoner in competition or the lone climber in its escalade.
The explored physicality is MARCHing. To march, as a way to unravel walking, representing the movement of today and carrying out in its meaning the repetition of an organized body, that moves forward in a regular and deliberate course.
Historically, marching emerges both in contexts of oppression and liberation, on both sides of the resistance, where there is the need to change and move forward together.
The question then emerges: how can a march become a movement?
In this piece, we work on the binomial dances of resistance/ resistance in dance. The choreographer is present, by giving live instructions and commands to the performer during the whole piece, through an in-ear system, concepts such as authorship, authority, freedom and leadership are being questioned.
— Cristina Planas Leitão
UM [unimal] – a coproduction of Culturgest, Lisbon (PT), Teatro Municipal do Porto (PT) and Teatro Aveirense (PT) and receives the Financial Support from Direção Geral das Artes / Portuguese Ministry of Culture and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
© Susana_Neves
© José Caldeira
© Susana_Neves
© José Caldeira
© José Caldeira
© José Caldeira
© João Duarte
© José Caldeira
© José Caldeira
Performance dates
27 April 2018
Teatro Académico Gil Vicente, Coimbra (PT) – Premiere – 21:30
2 May 2018
Festival DDD – Teatro do Bolhão (PT) – 19:00 – SOLD OUT
3 May 2018
Festival DDD – Teatro do Bolhão (PT) – 19:00 – EXTRA SESSION
11 May 2018
18 May 2018
Culturgest, Lisboa (PT) – 21:30
19 May 2018
Culturgest, Lisboa (PT) – 21:30
24 June 2018
Teatro Aveirense, Aveiro (PT) – 19:00
7 July 2018
Festival Cistermúsica OFF, Alcobaça (PT), 21:30
11 August 2018
Festival Bons Sons, Auditório Agostinho da Silva, Cem Soldos (PT) – in partnership with Materiais Diversos – 18:00
13 September 2018
Teatro Municipal de Faro (PT) – 21:30
27 September 2018
Festival contraDança, New Hand Lab, Covilhã (PT) – 21:30
9 November 2018
Centro de Arte de Ovar (PT) – 22:00
12 November 2018
FIDANC, Évora (PT)
25 January 2019
Teatro-Cine Torres Vedras (PT)
11 April 2019
Theatro Circo, Braga (PT)
7 June 2019
PT19 - Portuguese Platform of Performing Arts, Montemor-o-Novo (PT)
Credits
Concept, Choreography and Artistic Direction
Cristina Planas Leitão
Performance
Daniela Cruz
Light design & Technical Direction
Cárin Geada
Soundscape
Flávio Rodrigues
Sound Technician
Pedro Lima
Scenographic Objects
Emanuel Santos, Cristina P. Leitão
Dramaturgical Support
Catarina Miranda, Victor Hugo Pontes
Costume
Micaela Larisch, Cristina P. Leitão
Urban and Social Dance Consultants
Anaísa Lopes, Vítor Fontes
Marching Consultants
Rui Collaço, Luís Jorge
Talk Speakers
Resistance in the feminine Sónia Baptista, Joana Machado, Ana Cristina Vicente, Maíra Zenun
Executive Production
Célia Machado, Cristina P. Leitão
Advice and Support to communication
Joana Ferreira
Graphic Design
Eduardo Ferreira
Photography
Susana Neves
Video registration
Sofia Arriscado
Thanks to
Filipa Lowndes Vicente, Joana Gorjão Henriques, Gil Mendo, Ivan-Vincent Massey, Pedro Neves, Ana Renata Polónia, Mariana Jacob, Musibéria, Jesper de Neergaard, Lotte Kodod Ludvigsen, Lars Kjær Dideriksen, Paulo Meunier, Ana Isabel Castro.
Coproduction
Culturgest, Lisboa (PT);Teatro Municipal do Porto (PT); Teatro Aveirense (PT)
Co-presenters
Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente (PT) – Prèmiere; Casa das Artes de Famalicão (PT); Teatro Municipal de Faro (PT)
Financial Support
Direção Geral das Artes/ Ministério da Cultura (PT); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (PT)
Institutional Support
MC / Direção Regional de Cultural do Norte / Casa das Artes
Residencies & Support to the Creation 2017/2018
MD Kollektiv, Koln (DE); Dance Ireland, Dublin (IR); Teatro Nacional S. João (PT); Centro Danza Canal, Madrid (ES); Materiais Diversos/ Grand Studio Brussels (PT/BE); O Espaço do Tempo (PT); Bora Bora, Aarhus (DK); Companhia Instável, Porto (PT); NAVE, Santiago (CL); 23Milhas/ CM Ílhavo (PT)
