Malgré Nous, Nous Étions Là
Companhia Paulo Ribeiro (Portugal) | choreographer Paulo Ribeiro
One of Portugal’s foremost choregraphers, former Artistic Director of Gulbenkian Ballet, Paulo Ribeiro with his own company was presented for the first time at the 14th Dance Week Festival. This time he comes back to us with a fascinating love duet, inspired by a text by Gonçal M. Tavare and which he will performs with his – spouse.
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choreography: Paulo Ribeiro
co-creation: Leonor Keil
music: Bernardo Sasseti, Gilbert Becaud, Barbara, Travadinha
dancers: Paulo Ribeiro, Leonor Keil
lighting design: Nuno Meira
video: Paulo Américo
duration: 55′ (no interval)
about the performance
Movement 1
There are projects that are invented and others that emerge imbued with urgency and vitality.
We launch ourselves, convinced that we should talk about the complicity, the adventures that life and creation have given us, the doubts, the living of life permanently in company… And I, not wanting to speak about what is ours, Leonor repeating that she wants to talk about love, that she is tired of being on stage to reflect upon the sorrows of life. I proceeded in saying yes without knowing very well what I really wanted to say… Afterwards, my inclination towards chaos and excess, led me to imagine three duets with very proper characteristics that cohabit in time yet in different spaces. Then the conditioning circumstances of the partaken interpreters made the short term dream impossible. After that, the doubt that clung on to my skin was, why am I on stage again, what’s the point?! The heart desires yet the body does not respond. Then Leonor, always positive and demanding, and then the heart overtaking the body and our duet speaking independent of us, without any imposition of matter or materials. It happens because this is how it should happen!!!!
Subsequently, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Bernardo Sasseti, Paulo Américo, Nuno Meira, Albino, Maria de Assis, Miguel Honrado, Lira and us realizing that malgré nous, nous étions là. Now, there’s no turning back!!
Paulo Ribeiro
Movement 2
1) Dance to reach the conclusion
2) There are movements better than others
3) The industry of muscles does not accept the exception of the muscle
4) Hesitation between perfection and disaster
5) The better side is the worse side
6) Requests to make me worse: please become clearer
7) There are questions better than others
The movement is possible
9) Misguided intensity contained within perfection
10) Training nudity.
and happiness is more important than reality, then.
Gonçalo M. Tavares in Livro da Dança [The Book of Dance]
about the choreographer
Paulo Ribeiro was born in Lisbon. Worked as a dancer in several companies in Belgium and in France before becoming known as a choreographer.
His first performance concerning choreographic creation, took place in 1984 in Paris, in the company Stridanse, in which he collaborated as a co-founder and which he took to several contests in the mentioned city, obtaining in 1984, the Humour Award, and in 1985, the 2nd Award of contemporaneous dance, both in the Volinine contest.
In his return to Portugal, in 1988, he started collaborating with the Lisbon Dance Company and with Ballet Gulbenkian, for which he created Taquicárdia (Revelation Award of the Newspaper “Sete”, in 1988) and Ad Vitam, respectively. With the solo Modo de utilização, interpreted by himself, he comes to represent Portugal in the Europália 91 Festival, in Brussels.
His career as a choreographer expands in the international plan, from 1991 on, with the creation of works for renown companies, such as: Nederlands Dans Theater II (Encantados de servi-lo and Waiting for Volupia), Nederlands Dans Theater III (New Age); Ballet de Genève (Une Histoire de Passion); Centre Chorégraphique de Nevers, Bourgogne (Le Cygne Renversé). He still created for the Ballet Gulbenkian: Inquilinos, Quatro Árias de Ópera (in collaboration with Clara Andermatt, João Fiadeiro and Vera Mantero) and Comédia Off -1.
In the meanwhile, Paulo Ribeiro has been rewarded in 1994, with Acarte Award / Maria Madalena de Azeredo Perdigão due to his work Dançar Cabo Verde, a commend of Lisbon 94 - European Capital of Culture, conjointly produced with Clara Andermatt.
And, in 1995, he founds the Company Paulo Ribeiro, supported by the Ministry of Culture, for which he has been regularly creating choreographies, such as: Sábado 2, Rumor de Deuses, Azul Esmeralda, Memórias de Pedra – Tempo Caído, Orock, Ao Vivo, Comédia Off -2, Tristes Europeus – Jouissez Sans Entraves, Silicone Não and Memories of a Saturday with blue whispers.
Working with his own company allowed him to develop more effectively his personal language as a choreographer. The work Rumor de Deuses was distinguished, in 1996, with the awards: “Circulação Nacional”, attributed by the Instituto Português do Bailado e da Dança, and “Circulação Internacional”, attributed by the Centro Cultural de Courtrai, both concerning contest “Mudanças 96″.
Paulo Ribeiro has been receiving several other relevant awards: “Prix d’Auteur”, in the V Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine Saint-Denis, (France); “New Coreography Award”, attributed by Bonnie Bird Fund-Laban Centre (Great-Britain), “Prix d’Interpretation Collective”, attributed by ADAMI (France); Bordalo Award by Casa da Imprensa (2001).
In accumulation with his work as a choreographer, Paulo Ribeiro held, between 1998 and 2003, the position of General and Artistic Director of Teatro Viriato / CRAE (Centro Regional das Artes do Espectáculo das Beiras), that obtained, in 1999, the Almada Award of the Instituto Português das Artes do Espectáculo, owed to the activity developed in the area of Dance.
Between 2003 and 2005 he was the Artistic Director of Ballet Gulbenkian for whom he created the works White and Organic Beat, Organic Spirit, Organic Cage. “He remounted the performance of White Feeling to the Lorraine Ballet, originally created for the Gulbenkian Ballet, presented in Nancy in October 2006.
In September 2006, he reassumed his functions as general and artistic director of the Viriato Theatre.”
