AMENTA

“Repetition and recollection are the same movement, except in opposite directions, for what is recollected has been, is repeated backward, whereas genuine repetition is recollected forward.” _ Repetition, Soren Kierkegaard

Piece for 6 Performers/ Full Show at Dock11 Berlin

AMENTA _ Full Show at Dock11/ Berlin/ November 2012 from catarina miranda on Vimeo.

The portuguese term “Amenta” means to pay tribute to the dead, to remember.

A suspended atrium crossed by bodies travelling in concentric pathways on simple geometric structures that intersect, overlap, duplicate and converge. This continuous stream is composed by a succession of canonical pathways, folds that are repeated by the cyclical movement, distinct in each recovery, the body acts while regulatory element of time. Hands hold the preponderance and they introduce the motion traced by the body, where the gesture approach vegetative and zoomorphic forms.

This structure organizes the gestures and pulsations of the performers, a group variable of 3-6 people and can expand their paths enabling the development of the piece with different groups of artists or local communities.

The sound composition is inspired by the music of Fanfare and Procession (common in Portugal) as well as cyclic constructions found in music of static nature.

PROCESS

During the conception of the piece we used the concept of reiterating actions backwards and forward, in order to build a structure of repetition where the positions occupied by the performers in space, within the relation of it’s geometrical organisation, became simultaneously annunciations of the future as well as memories of the past.

From the intention of “containing” and “dropping” the performers draw a vocabulary of gestures that arise sometimes hollow or filled of matter, according with co-ordinates of time and space.

ARTISTIC TEAM

Concept/ Artistic Direction _ Catarina Miranda

Co-criation/ Dramaturgy _ Alfredo Martins, André Soares, Catarina Miranda, Jonathan Uliel Saldanha

Performance _ Alfredo Martins, André Soares, Catarina Gonçalves, Catarina Miranda, Miranda Markgraf, Moo Kim

Sound Composition _ Jonathan Uliel Saldanha

Trumpet _ Álvaro Almeida

Presentations _ Dock11/ Berlin (Premiére 2012), Festival Andaime/ Manobras (Porto 2012), Negócio/ ZDB (Lisbon 2012)

Support _ Flocks&Shoals Collective (De), Soopa Collective (Pt), Piso Collective (Pt), Dock11 (De), Negócio/Zé dos Bois (Pt), Festival Andaime/ Manobras (Pt), Círculo Católico dos Operários do Porto (Pt), Gestão dos Direitos dos Artistas (Pt), Tatwerk (De), AltesFinanzamt (De), Núcleo de Experimentação Coreográfica do Porto (Pt), Academia Contemporânea do Espectáculo (Pt); Thanks to Carlos Correia.

PRESS

“Catarina Miranda explores the organic side of contemporary dance introducing new interpretations of the body in space, giving special attention to the stage illumination, carefully planned in order to unify both.” Manobras 2012 in http://manobrasnoporto.com/themes/mapa2012.php _ Performance Andaime 2 Catarina Miranda

AMENTA 2012 _ “First I met Alfredo Martins at Hebbel am Ufer. Just by coincidence. He was seated two rows after me. At the end of the show, he invited me to go see Catarina Miranda’s performance, “Amenta”, where he was also acting. (The world is a small place) Besides some other conclusions, in “Amenta” I saw: the first mask, a meteorite rain, the collapse of World Trade Centre, the gesture of giving, the light that enters on children’s bedrooms. ” Tiago Mansilha _ http://berolinastrasse.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/catarina-miranda-amenta/