WAVE DANCE LAB +55 Anos

WAVE DANCE LAB +55 Years

Paris + Lisbon // Choreographic Creation Laboratory
Artistic Director: Rafael Alvarez | BODYBUILDERS

Performance / work-in-progress
12 May, 6pm - Carpintarias de São Lázaro, Lisbon

April 25 to 28, 2019, Micadanses, Paris
7 to 12 May 2019, Carpintarias de São Lázaro, Lisbon


BODYBUILDERS | Rafael Alvarez promotes a choreographic training and creation project for Over 55 & Seniors that is the outcome of an exchange and artistic collaboration between 20 participants from the Paris and Lisbon regions. Together, they will be challenged to explore and develop a collaborative choreographic project with a public presentation in Lisbon. The training, research and creation process is structured through two intensive labs to be held in Paris (April 25-28) and Lisbon (May 7-12) with a final performance in Lisbon (May 12, Carpintarias de São Lázaro).
The WAVE DANCE LAB will be extended to Palmela as part of the Micro FIAR Festival (July 24-27, Cine-Teatro São João).

The WAVE Project (Portugal-Japan-France-Malaysia), continues the research and choreographic creation started in 2017 by choreographer Rafael Alvarez in Japan. In addition, the creation of the solo "NO INTERVALO DE UMA ONDA" (2017) and the duet "NA ONDA DA DISTÂNCIA" (2018-19) and their tour through Portugal, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos.

The WAVE project is motivated by a key image that remains invisible but present throughout the different creations - "Kanawaga's Great Wave", an iconic work by the Japanese painter Hokusai created in 1830. It has been reproduced since the mid 1870's through a series of lithographs using the traditional Japanese printing technique known as ukiyo (literally, "floating world"). In this floating world nothing is too small or insignificant to hold our attention. We embody this project of shadows, evocations and masks through Hokusai's wave. It is a double invitation to travel and to quietude, immersing East and West in a coexistence of readings and images, where less is more.

The WAVE DANCE LAB +55 Years invites all its participants and audiences to immerse themselves in a journey to Japan. Through a silent dialogue, they will discover the simplicity and potential of the main materials present throughout this performance - Light and Shadow, Body and Paper, contributes to the exploration and construction of a dance performance. A performance that lies on the border between an inhabited installation, a choreographic landscape and a ritual of monochromatic movement.

The WAVE DANCE LAB +55 Years follows the context of the regular project - Contemporary Dance Classes for 55 Year Olds & Seniors created in 2001 by choreographer Rafael Alvarez. Since then, it has been held regularly (weekly classes, workshops, labs and performances) in Portugal and abroad (France, Germany, Argentina and Brazil).

For more information and/or registration please contact: bodybuilders.rafaelalvarez@gmail.com