Dançando com a Diferença brings Vera Mantero to Funchal

For the period between March 18th and 22nd, Dançando com a Diferença invited the choreographer and dancer Vera Mantero to come to Madeira and develop the workshop "The Thinking Body" for her cast of professional dancers and a public activity called "My Dance History".

"My Dance Story" is an activity open to all the public, connoisseurs and curious about Vera Mantero's work and will take place next Wednesday, March 20th between 6pm and 8pm at the São Martinho Gymnasium (Esmeraldo road #6). It will be the second session of this activity, like the previous one that took place with La Ribot last January.

In "My Dance Story", Vera Mantero will develop a conversation with the audience, where she will present and describe her journey in the area of dance, talking about her work, her ideas, her influences and inspirations. As an informal conversation, this initiative from O Rumo do Fumo and Fórum Dança is promoted in Madeira by Dançando com a Diferença and aims to develop a close relationship between the public and the work of the artists presented here. All those interested in watching "My Dance Story" by Vera Mantero should, by Tuesday March 19th, reserve a place through the number: 92 706 9966 or email [email protected]

With the cast of Dançando com a Diferença, Vera Mantero will develop a workshop called "The Thinking Body", a work where relaxation, the use of voice, writing, breathing and free association are some of the means to reach the movements, actions, structures and compositional desires that are within us.

In this activity particular states of consciousness, attention to external and internal signs (awareness), use of space, and exploration of objects and materials are important. About this initiative with Vera Mantero, the Artistic Director of Dançando com a Diferença, Henrique Amoedo, tells us that "Vera Mantero's proposal is in line with the development of corporal and professional awareness, bases of the Dance-Physical Education Method, used by us as in the construction of our intervention methodology. It is also one of our goals to invest in the continuous training of our performers, and this is one of the actions that meets this objective".

Artist, dancer and choreographer, Vera Mantero studied classical dance with Anna Mascolo and was part of the Ballet Gulbenkian between 1984 and 1989. She became one of the central names in Portuguese New Dance, having started her choreographic career in 1987 and shown her work throughout Europe, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Canada, South Korea, USA and Singapore. In 1999 Culturgest organized a retrospective of her work to date, entitled "Month of March, Month of Vera". She represented Portugal at the 26th São Paulo Biennial 2004, with "Comer o Coração", created in partnership with Rui Chafes. In 2002 she was awarded the Almada Prize (IPAE/Ministry of Culture) and in 2009 the Gulbenkian Art Prize for her career as a creator and performer. Since 2000 she also dedicates herself to voice work, singing repertoire of several authors and co-creating experimental music projects.

The workshop "The Thinking Body" by Vera Mantero and the activity "My History of Dance" by Rumo do Fumo and Fórum Dança, are promoted in the Autonomous Region of Madeira by Dançando com a Diferença with funding from the Directorate General of the Arts.