Partnership Nome Próprio and Teatro Aveirense

CURATED BY

Victor Hugo Pontes

He was born in Guimarães, in 1978. He holds a degree in Plastic Arts – Painting, by Faculdade de Belas Artes of Universidade do Porto. In 2001, he attended the Norwich School of Art and Design, England. He finished his professional qualifications of Theatre at Balleteatro Escola Profissional and Teatro Universitário do Porto, as well as the degree of Pesquisa and Criação Coreográfica do Fórum Dança (Research and Choreographic Creation of Dance Forum). As a creator, his career began to flourish in 2003 with his work Puzzle. Since then, he has been perfecting his choreographic brand, and presented his work all over the country, as well as Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, among other countries. Since 2009, he is the artistic director of Nome Próprio – Associação Cultural, whose headquarters are in Porto.

INSTRUCTORS

Ángela Diaz Quintela | Group 2 (10-12 y/o), Grupo 3A (13-15 y/o) and Group 1 Creative Lab
Ángela was born in Sarria, a small village of Galicia. She graduated in Educação Social at the Universidade de A Coruña (2011) and in Dance at Escola Superior de Dança de Lisboa (2014).
She attended, through the Erasmus programme, the Fontys Academy School, in the Netherlands, where she worked with the choreographers Eddy Becquart and Gabriella Maiorino (2014). Professionally, she worked with Amélia Bentes, Victor Hugo Pontes, Clara Andermatt, Daniela Cruz, Romeo Castelluci, Catarina Miranda, Meytal Blanaru, Luisa Saraiva, André Braga and Cláudia Figueiredo/Circolando.


Deeogo Oliveira | Group 3A (13-15 y/o) and Group 4A (over 16 y/o)
Diogo Oliveira was born in Porto, in 1992. He started dancing at the age of 9. He is a member of the urban dance group – Momentum crew. In 2017, he finished the Advanced Training in Interpretação e Criação Coreográfica (FAICC) in Companhia Instável.

As a performer, he worked with Ricardo Pais, Max Oliveira, Victor Hugo Pontes, Oliveira&Bachtler and Né Barros. Co-creator and performer of Kokoro with Ana Isabel Castro and of SOLO with the stage director Manuel Tur.

Winner of an international championship of bboying in the category 1vs1 in The bboy Gala and in the category in the Battle pro and Warsaw Challenge. He is also the national winner in the category 1vs1 in the Excellence and in the category 3vs3 in Pro steps (2016-2018).
He integrated countless national and international events, as a performer, instructor and jury of urban dance in Portugal, Holland, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, among others.

Hélder Seabra | Group 3B (13-15 y/o) and Group 4A and 4B Creative Lab
Hélder was born in Porto and currently lives in Antwerp. He studied in Ginasiano Escola de Dança and in P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios), in Belgium. In the last 12 years, he has been a member of well-known companies, such as Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus and Eastman/Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Both nationally and internationally, as a performer, choreographic assistant and instructor. Simultaneously, he has been developing his own artistic practices. In 2013, he funded HelKa Vzw, to channel all his previous experiences and explore the vast potential of the body and mind and different forms of dialogue, through collaborating with other artists. Through this platform, he has been creating, executing and teaching in an engaging way (inter)nationally.


Hillel Kogan

Choreographer, dancer, dramaturge and teacher. Kogan has been creating dance works since 1996.For nine years, from 1996 to 2005, Kogan focused on short creations and was commissioned to create works for the National Ballet of Portugal , Muza Dance Company, for the Shades of Dance Festival at the Suzanne Dellal Center and others. In 2009, he was invited to join the Israeli Choreographers’ Association. He has participated in the Israeli Ministry of Culture flagship event the Curtain Up Festival multiple times. As part of this platform, Kogan presented Taki Take One (together with Yossi Berg and Inbal Yaacobi, 2006), After the Bolero (2007), Everything (2009) and Obscene Gesture (2011).Kogan repertoire includes the evening­length works The Rite of Spring (2011) and We Love Arabs (2013), which were created as commissions for Tmuna Theater’s Intimadance Festival. We Love Arabs received various prizes and acknowledgement in Israel and abroad. This work continues to be performed in Israel and abroad including engagements in New York, Portland, Paris, Munich, Budapest, Prague and more. We Love Arabs is performed in three versions: Hebrew, English and French. He is the recipient of the Israel National Lottery’s 2015 Landau Prize, The Israel Critics’ Circle’s Outstanding Choreographer of 2013, and was named as a Promising Choreographer by European magazine Tanz in 1999 and 2014. For his choreographies, Kogan received the Yair Shapira Prize in 2010 and the Teva Prize in dance in 2009. In 2015, Kogan was appointed as co­artistic director of the Curtain Up Festival. Kogan graduated from Thelma Yelin High School for the Arts’ Theater Department. His dance studies continued at The Bat Dor Dance Studio and the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York City (thanks to a generous grant from the America Israel Cultural Foundation). He performed as a member of the youth company Bikurei Machol (1990), The Batsheva Ensemble (1995­6), Nomades Dance Company of Switzerland (1996­8) and the Gulbenkian Ballet of Portugal (1999­2005). As part of the Israeli dance scene, Kogan has worked as a dancer, choreographer, collaborator and dramaturge with Renana Raz, Dana Ruttenberg, Yossi Berg and Oded Graf and others. Kogan has performed as a guest with Batsheva Dance Company. In 2005, Kogan received an invitation to work as Assistant Choreographer to Ohad Naharin. In this role, Kogan has worked with the Batsheva Ensemble as well as various foreign troupes. In parallel to this position, Kogan has been an active member of the Israeli and international dance communities as an independent choreographer.

Kogan teaches Gaga, repertoire (his own and other’s) and contemporary dance. He has taught at companies such as Norway’s Carte Blanche, Gauthier Dance in Germany, IT Danza in Spain and more. Kogan also teaches dance to undergraduate students of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

Hillel Kogan writes articles on dance, which have been published in the online magazine Maakaf and in the quarterly magazine Machol Achshav.

Joana Castro | Group 1 (8-9 y/o), Group 4A (over 16 y/o) and Group 2 Creative Lab
Joana was born in 1988, Porto. In 2003, she began her studies in the subject of dance in the Balleteatro Escola Profissional, and attended PEPCC (Programme of Study, Research and Choreographical Creation) at Fórum Dança in 2008. She received a scholarship from NEC in 2009; in 2013, she participated in the DanceWeb Scholarship Programme of Festival Impulstanz, in Vienna and in 2016/17 she attended the post-graduation of specialization in performance in Faculdade de Belas Artes of Porto.
As a performer she worked with Né Barros, Victor Hugo Pontes, Ana Borralho and João Galante, Flávio Rodrigues, Joana Providência, Joclécio Azevedo, Mariana Tengner Barros, Juliana Snapper, Carlota Lagido, Maurícia Barreira Neves, among others.
Since 2009 she has been developing her own work, and presented some pieces in Portugal, Belgium, France and Germany.
In 2012, she represented Portugal in the Les Repérages/Danse à Lille meetings and integrated the choreographic company Correios em Movimento/Dança em Trânsito, in Rio de Janeiro.


Leo | Group 1 (8-9 y/o) and Group 2 (10-12 y/o)
Lisbon, 1979. Leo graduated in Sports Sciences, by Faculdade de Motricidade Humana da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. In 2016, she finished the Professional Course of Osteopathy in Instituto Kiros.
She has been developing since 2003 research and work in the dance area, namely Hip Hop, House Dance, Popping and Tap-Dance, having obtained training in Portugal, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, London and Vienna.
In 2003, she founded the feminine crew Butterfliesoulflow and integrates since 2014 the company Orchidaceae Urban Tribal. As an interpreter, she integrated the show Sonho de uma Noite de Verão, Teatro Praga (2010); Periférico de Vhils, choreographed by Anaísa Lopes – Piny (2017); Sacred Geometry | A Meditative State (2018).

She is presently a member of the cast of Bisonte, by Marco da Silva Ferreira. She is a guest dancer in concerts of Batida.

She teaches classes, nationally and internationally, in the styles of House Dance, Hip Hop and Popping.

Luísa Carles | Group 2 (10-12 y/o) and Group 3B (13-15 y/o)

Luísa Carles is from Panama and was born in 1957. From 1968 to 1972, she had her classical training in various schools of Dance and in the National Conservatory of Panama and in 1972, she joined the National Ballet Company of Panama, having returned later as a Soloist.
In her academic training she went through the Teachers Training Course of the Royal Academy of Dancing and from the Durham University. In 1981, she became a member of the Companhia Nacional de Bailado, under the artistic supervision of Armando Jorge.
Since 1982, she has been cooperating regularly with Academia de Dança Contemporânea de Setúbal; in 1983, she was nominated effective teacher of Centro de Formação de Bailarinos of the CNB; in 1993, she was invited by Escola de Dança do Conservatório Nacional; and from 2009 onwards, she has been collaborating with Escola Superior de Dança, among many other schools.
In 1996, she was nominated Production Director of CNB, a position she held until 2008. Presently, she performs several functions at OPART – Organismo de Produção Artística (Artistic Production Organism), E.P.E. (organism that runs CNB and TNSC), as a coordinator of the project “Centro Histórico” since 2011 and as Project Manager in the Victor Córdon Studios, with the coordination of Rui Lopes Graça since July 2017.

Marina Kaptijn

Marina Kaptijn has been working with Jan Fabre since 1987. She started as a dancer in The Dance Sections. Later on, she danced in shows, such as Sweet Temptation (1991), Universal Copyrights (1995), The sound of one hand clapping (1995), Je suis Sang (2005) and Mount Olympus (2015). Since 2005 she has been using her experience in the training of the new generation of dancers, including the ones from the solo performance Quando l’uomo principale è una donna.
Marina Kaptijn provides training in workshops from the work of Jan Fabre, aimed at dancers, performers, students and theatre teachers. Besides being part of the centre of trainers of Jan Fabre, Kaptijn is a certified instructor of dancers and teaches classical dance, physical theatre and yoga.

Piny | Group 4B (over 16 y/o) and Group 3A and 3B Creative Lab
Lisbon, 1981. Anaísa has a degree in Architecture (F.A.U.T.L.).

Since 2007, Anaísa has focused on a few urban dance styles: House, Vogue, Hip Hop, Waacking and Breakdance. She has been continuously researching on different approaches related to contemporary dance and began the experiment of vocabulary merging through tribal fusion.

In 2012, she gradutated in Dance from Escola Superior de Dança de Lisboa and founded the company Orchidaceae Urban Tribal. Since 2014 she has been presenting her work in different European countries, the United States, Central America, South America and Asia.
As a choreographer, she presented her first creation in 2011 – Corpo (i)lógico. She choreographed the play Periférico de Vhils, for BoCA Bienal (2017). As a performer she worked with Kwenda Lima, Filipa Francisco, Tiago Guedes, Victor Hugo Pontes, Ricardo Ambrózio, Tânia Carvalho, Raquel Castro and Marco da Silva Ferreira.


Sara Barros Leitão | Group 1 (8-9 y/o), Group 2 (10-12 y/o) and Group 4B (over 16 y/o)
From Porto, Sara was born in 1990. She graduated in Acting at Academia Contemporânea do Espectáculo. Throughout her journey, she had as teachers António Capelo, João Paulo Costa, Maria do Céu Ribeiro, Nuno Pino Custódio, Luís Madureira, Natália Luiza, Sandra Mladenovic, Kuniaki Ida, Victor Hugo Pontes, Joana Providência, etc. She is an actress, a staging assistant, producer and student. She works regularly in cinema and television. In theatre she made her debut in the tragedy “Romeu e Julieta”, produced by Teatro do Bolhão. She worked with directors such as Natália Luiza, Joana Craveiro, João Reis, Miguel Seabra, Nuno M. Cardoso, Nuno Carinhas, Gonçalo Amorim, etc, and she has been a member of companies and structures like Teatro Meridional, Teatro do Vestido, Teatro Nacional São João, Teatro Experimental do Porto, etc.

Last year, she premiered two creations as a stage director: “Trilogia das Barcas”, in Dias da Música, at Centro Cultural de Belém and “Teoria das Três Idades”, inserted in FITEI 2018, Teatro Municipal do Porto Rivoli.

Solange Melo | Group 3A (13-15 y/o) and Group 4A (over 16 y/o)
Solange was born in Lisbon, in 1980. She studied at Escola de Dança do Conservatório Nacional under the guidance of Master Georges Garcia. She entered the Companhia Nacional de Bailado in 1998, where she was promoted to Main Dancer in 2012. From 2005 to 2007, she was a Solo dancer in Norway’s National Ballet. Part of her repertoire consists of an interpretation of dance acts from the classical universe, such as: Swan Lake (Odette/Odile), Giselle (Giselle/Myrtha), Sleeping Beauty (Aurora), Romeo and Juliet (Julieta), Cinderela (Cinderela/Irmã), The Nutcracker (Clara/Fada do Açúcar), Fire Bird, among others. She has also been dancing a vast neo-classic and contemporary repertoire of Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Paul Lightfoot/Sol Léon, Hans van Manen, Vasco Wellenkamp, Olga Roriz and Ohad Naharin.
She completed a degree in Business Management at United Kingdom’s Open University. In 2018, she shared the artistic directing of the dance piece Murmúrios de Pedro e Inês with Fernando Duarte.


Vera Santos | Group 5 (Adults - initiation)
Vera was born in Porto, in 1973. Dancer, choreographer and dance teacher living in Porto.She holds a professional training in Dance and a bachelor’s degree in Theatre/Interpretation. In addition to this, she finished the Course of Research and Choreographic Creation of Forúm Dança, and has two courses in Choreography and Performing Arts, from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Contemporary dance is her main area, where she has been developing her work as a dancer/interpreter since the beginning of the 90s and later, as a choreographer, having debuted her first ever creation alongside her grandma, who was 80 years old when she danced for the first time. Parallel to this, in the teaching area, both with people that have some experience in dancing or not, she explores the physicality of each body and its possibilities of expression.


Vítor Fontes | Group 3B (13-15 y/o) and Group 4B (over 16 y/o)
Vítor was born in Porto, in 1978. He finished his Master’s Degree in Sports Management (2011) and his degree in Sports and Physical Education in FADEUP (2003). Dancer since 1998, he has been the art director and choreographer of the company All About Dance since 2000, and a managing partner and director of the Academy All About Dance since 2001 and director of the Hip Hop International Portugal (JVJ-Eventos Lda) and Associação Portuguesa de Hip Hop Dance Crews.
He received training from Edge, Millennium and Debbie Reynolds in Los Angeles, Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center and Peridance, in New York, Pineapple, in London and Gaga Intensive Workshop, in Amsterdam.
As a choreographer and dancer he participated in the plays Asylum (2010); Distortion (2011); O Comboio Fantasma, staged by Lee Beagley (2012), Urban Ballets (2013), Urbanology (2014), Urbam - Geografia do Movimento Urbano (2014), Tuki - We Are From The Hood (2015).
He cocreated with Maria de Melo Falcão the show ar-ti-fí-cio (2017) and Bouncing Heads (2018). He was an interpreter in the play Hu(r)mano and Brother by Marco da Silva Ferreira (2013 -2018).
He won The Notorious IBE Portugal 2014, Esposende Street Battle (2017) and Jazzy Battle 2018.