Cafezinho

Gaya de Medeiros, Brazilian artist living in Portugal, uses dance to transform her concerns into emotion, beauty and sweat. Her performance “Atlas da Boca”, co-created with Ary Zara, was considered one of the best shows of 2022. Invited by BoCA to enter the universe of Pina Bausch, Gaya de Medeiros engages in her militancy of affections to investigate in this new project forms of hope or the effort “to hope”. Based on the environment proposed in Pina Bausch’s emblematic show “Café Müller” (1978), which curiously was last danced in Lisbon, and those characters who have a very fragile relationship with life, the Brazilian choreographer and dancer weaves a multigenerational reflection on depression, ageing and the future. 

By revisiting Bausch’s classic, Gaya explores the expressive paradox of dance as a communication tool and a mysterious, opaque force. Thus, by traversing that morbid, distressing and sometimes convulsive universe, the performer invites the audience to dive into their pulsions of life and death, and to desacralise the act of being alive – less a duty than a choice.

This public sharing takes place in the Victor Córdon Studios, precisely where Pina Bausch rehearsed her 1998 creation about Lisbon, “Masurca Fogo”.

Creation and artistic direction: Gaya de Medeiros
Co-creation and interpretation: Gaya de Medeiros, Helena Baronet, Jo Bernardo, Lívia Espírito Santo and Paulina Santos
Dramaturgy support: Ana Rocha
Musical composition: Ricardo Almeida
Musicians: Inês Almeida, Bruno Barbosa e Ricardo Almeida
Light design and scenic space: Tiago Cadete
Costume design: Raphael Fraga
Administration: Gustavo Monteiro / Sekoia – Artes Performativas
Production: Luísa Teixeira / Sekoia – Artes Performativas
Comission and coproduction: BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts
Coproduction: Sekoia – Artes Performativas