© Vasco Célio

Vera Mantero – The Thinking Body

CAMADA - Centro Coreográfico
8 > 12 JUL / 10h00 > 14h00

Relaxation, the use of the voice, writing, breathing, and free association are some of the means used in this workshop to arrive at the movements, actions, structures, and compositional desires that are currently within us. We’ll explore some separately to incorporate them later into longer or more complex improvisation or composition processes. Particular states of consciousness, attention to external and internal signs (awareness), space use, and exploring objects and materials will also be important. Irony and empty hands will take us even further.


Vera Mantero studied classical dance with Anna Mascolo and was a member of the Gulbenkian Ballet between 1984 and 1989. She became one of the leading names in Portuguese New Dance, starting her choreographic career in 1987 and showing her work throughout Europe, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Canada, South Korea, the USA and Singapore. Since 2000 she has also dedicated herself to voice work, singing repertoire by various authors and co-creating experimental music projects. In 1999 Culturgest organised a retrospective of her work to date, entitled ‘Month of March, Month of Vera’. She represented Portugal at the 26th São Paulo Biennial in 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.