Three groups of teenagers revisit the repertoire of a paradigmatic choreographer directed by three local choreographers from three cities.

“P.E.D.R.A.” is a contemporary dance project taking place in punctual meetings over a period of four months, and aimed at youngsters aged 15 to 18 with or without artistic experience. It starts by inviting a nationally renowned choreographer with a repertoire that can be used to participate. The process takes place simultaneously in Porto, Lisbon and Viseu, with the participants and the local choreographer creating together and the invited choreographer monitoring. Porto is the host city of this first edition and Clara Andermatt is the choreographer invited for an exercise based on the reading, rendition and fruition of her repertoire. Cristina Planas Leitão (Porto), Romulus Neagu (Viseu) and Amélia Bentes (Lisbon) carry out the local work with the teenagers.

Revisiting past works leads us to meet ourselves, straight to the memories, the ideas, the lasting conditions that still resonate, and those at which we look with distance and tenderness since they belong to a place that has meanwhile changed. The key issue in this project is to be able to make the reasons, the ideas and the myriad of ingredients from a portion of my work known to the choreographers and participants involved. All of this while remaining aware that the way to pass on that information is yet to be discovered... The piece chosen as the subject of analysis is called “So Solo”, and it was designed to be danced by me. The task is not easy, since there are several groups in different geographic spaces with few work hours. It is an exercise that forces me to synthesize, to find the foundation of this architecture, and to pinpoint the key elements to share and give others the chance to experience. We are part of this first edition and I feel that, in order to find the best way to implement it, I have to go through it and to be confronted with the issues and problems that arise. To share my universe and my creative thinking with the choreographers and the youngsters. I’m a cog in a wheel that keeps spinning around an axis that is me, but that the others expand by using it as raw matter to creatively explore. I’m in it and at the same time I’m not. I come and go expecting that in the end something be learnt about creation, about history, and about us. • Clara Andermatt

Based on the desires and concerns of this group of curious teenage girls, we address issues such as loneliness, love, obsession, and the animal, visceral body. At the same time we deconstruct the very scenic elements, using them as a driving force for this collective solo. It is a creative exercise in which the participants watch, question, act and react through dance. • Cristina Planas Leitão

A feature of Clara Andermatt’s work is to stage inner conflicts. In this case, to let the body speak is to dive into the essence of the character from “So Solo”, the piece introduced to stimulate this process. In this exercise we look for states of mind of this lonesome creature, together on the same journey, that of conflict and unease, but also of pleasure and encounter, in a constant search for appeasement and balance. • Amélia Bentes

A territory specifically marked by a strong interpreting presence, combining the explosion of inner movement with the metaphoric silences of Tennessee Williams’ texts, in which Joan of Arc’s rebelliousness takes over the scenic space in contrast with the melancholic resignation of a black cat. Moments and pieces of intense inner effervescence while looking for an exit to a future time using nothing but an old recipe that still works: “I love you...” • Romulus Neagu

6YRS+