A small composition exercise

“It’s my habit not to do major plays every year, just as a writer doesn’t write a novel every year, just as a filmmaker doesn’t make a film every year, etc. Each major piece requires a time of maturation, gestation, and a creative effort, a creative plunge that cannot be produced continuously, otherwise the work will wear out and lose depth. But there are many materials in each piece that remain to be explored and deepened each time we finish a creation, and that we will not be able to explore and deepen in the next one. In addition, the possibility of making sketches in dance, small studies of composition and deepening of ongoing themes is very important and must be able to be carried out. In every piece we work on, there are a number of things that are left hanging, loose ends that cannot be grasped, either for lack of time or because they simply do not find their place in the work we are doing. The present work with Teresa Silva and Santiago Tricot is intended to be an opportunity to reflect on materials that have been left behind in the process of the piece ‘O Susto é um Mundo’ (2021) and also an opportunity to practice making, composing, returning in ‘performative thing’ that what occupies us at the moment.”

Vera Mantero

Co-creation and interpretation: Vera Mantero and Teresa Silva
Light and artistic collaboration: Santiago Tricot
Production: O Rumo do Fumo
Artistic residencies: DeVIR/CAPa, Estúdios Victor Córdon/opart, Largo Residências
Rumo do Fumo is a structure funded by Portuguese Republic – Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts