The thinking body - a residency workshop with Vera Mantero

Relaxation, the use of voice, writing, breathing and free association are some means to be used in this workshop in order to find the movements, actions, structures and desires of composition that are currently inside us. We will explore some of them separately in order to incorporate them later in longer and more complex improvisational processes or even in composition processes. Equally important will be the particular states of consciousness, the attention to exterior and interior signals (awareness), the use of space and the exploration of objects and materials. Irony and empty hands will take us further.
BIOGRAPHY
Vera Mantero is an internationally renowned Portuguese dance maker. She studied classical dance with Anna Mascolo and danced in the Gulbenkian Ballet between 1984 and 1989. Mantero started choreographing in 1987 and, since 1991, has been presenting her solo and group work all over Europe, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, South Korea and the USA. Her recent work “The Clean and The Dirty”, premiered in April 2016 at the Maria Matos Theatre in the framework of the cycle “The Three Ecologies”, reflects the choreographer's concerns for fundamental issues such as the environment, economic sustainability, social cohesion and inclusion, and Citizenship. Vera Mantero participates regularly in international improvisation projects alongside improvisers and choreographers such as Lisa Nelson, Mark Tompkins, Meg Stuart and Steve Paxton. Since the year 2000 Mantero has also been exploring vocal work, either singing the repertoire of different authors or co-creating experimental music projects. She regularly teaches composition and improvisation in Portugal and abroad. Recently, Vera Mantero was invited by Boris Charmatz to be part of “20 Dancers for the 20th Century”, a living archive of the defining choreographic solos of the 20th century, that took place at Tate Modern (London) and at the Paris Opera/Palais Garnier (Paris) in 2015, and at the Staatsoper, in Hannover (Tanzkongress) and at the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid) in 2016. www.orumodofumo.com