PT | EN

Two years separate Versa-vice from a piece by Tânia Carvalho that premiered in Marseille one evening in January 2020. The name of this piece was Onironauta. A name borrowed from those travelers capable of controlling their dreams, of shaping, for themselves alone, a world of images and meanings. There were seven dancers on stage. A number that, as is often the case in Tânia Carvalho’s works, sets the tone, translates an intention, betrays a demiurgic claim.

How many will be on stage to perform Versa-vice? To date, Tânia Carvalho does not know, or pretends not to know. Eleven or twelve, she says. But from one to the other, it’s a world away! And those who, like me, are lucky enough to know her would tend to see it as a cover-up.

The devil is in the detail, some will agree, but not only: this new piece could have been called “Oneirophrenia”, named after that clinical condition from another time, categorized by sensory deprivation due to lack of sleep. A most suggestive name which, associated with the number twelve, would not have failed to evoke to the amateurs of the Marseilles Tarot the card of the hanged man (XII), carrying an unequivocal meaning: isolation and illness.

Instead, the title of this new piece, Versa-vice, sounds like a celebration of our emotions. A declaration of life, as we wage war.

Backwards, Tania Carvalho, as always.

Credits

Choreography & Artistic Direction
Tânia Carvalho

Performers
Andriucha, Bruno Senune, Catarina Carvalho, Cláudio Vieira, Filipe Baracho, Luís Guerra, Matthieu Ehrlacher, Nina Botkay, Patricia Keleher, Tânia Carvalho

Light Design & Technical Direction
Anatol Waschke

Sound Engineer
Juan Mesquita

Music
Tânia Carvalho

Set & Costumes
TBA

Executive Direction
Vítor Alves Brotas

Administration & Funding
Janine Lages

Executive Production & Logistics
João Guimarães

Communication & Press Relations
Sara Huberty Ramos

International Booking
Colette de Turville

Production
Agência 25

Coproduction
Culturgest (Portugal),Estúdio 25 (Portugal), Julidans Amsterdam (Netherlands), La Briqueterie – CDCN du Val-de-Marne / Biennale du Val-de-Marne (France), Teatro Municipal do Porto – Rivoli e Campo Alegre / DDD – Festival Dias da Dança (Portugal), Théâtre Jacques Carat Cachan (France), Theatro Circo (Portugal).

Coproduction residencies
Culturgest (Portugal), Le Gymnase CDCN Roubaix – Hauts-de-France (France), O Espaço do Tempo (Portugal).

Partnerships
Le Gymnase CDCN Roubaix – Hauts-de-France (France), Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente / Convento de São Francisco / Abril Dança em Coimbra (Portugal), Teatro Viriato (Portugal)

Support
Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Polo Cultural Gaivotas | Boavista, Casa-Atelier – Foundation Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva

Tânia Carvalho was born in Viana do Castelo and lives in Lisbon. Best known as a choreographer, with a career spanning over 20 years, she also works in other artistic fields, such as music, drawing and film.

Her choreography work includes pieces for the Lyon Opera Ballet (Xylographie), the Company of Elders in London (I Walk, You Sing), the National Ballet of Portugal (S), the Paulo Ribeiro Company (How will I do this?), and Dançando com a Diferença (Doesdicon), among many others.

She has been developing several musical projects, of which stand out Madmud, Idiolecto and dubloc barulin. In 2018, she directed A Bag and a Stone – dance piece for screen, her first film.

In 2022, as part of the Portugal-France Cultural Season, the Théâtre de la Ville promoted a focus on her work, presenting several shows in Paris.

She was awarded with the Young Creators Award 2000, with Inicialmente Previsto, and received the 2012 Prémio Autores from the Portuguese Society of Authors, for Icosahedron (2012) and oneironaut (2021).

Tânia Carvalho

Newsletter