Next June, the Companhia de Dança de Almada will be performing at the Seattle International Dance Festival, in the United States of America, with the piece "The Process of Burning in Reverse", a creation by São Castro.
Premiered in 2024, the year marking the centenary of Franz Kafka's death, this piece was the result of an invitation to the choreographer to create a new work for the Companhia de Dança de Almada, in which she set out to combine the body and its expressive potential with the visceral and enigmatic narrative of this controversial and influential writer.
In São Castro's choreographic work there has been constant attention and reflection on the relationship between word and body. In recent years, she has developed theoretical and practical research through her creations, in order to analyse and explore methods of translating the word into the body, so that it manifests itself as visible discourse.
A methodology that she calls the embodiment of the word has been the focus of her creative processes and has simultaneously revealed itself as a continuous search for communication processes in which the body is the protagonist and its movement is the enabler of a non-verbal discourse that, even if it is abstract - one of the characteristics associated with dance - has the capacity to reveal itself as a dramaturgical extension of the word.
It was in the wake of this research that the choreographer turned to Kafka's works for this piece, whose research process began at Teatro Viriato as part of the ‘mi casa tu casa’ Creation Residency Programme, followed by a residency in Almada.
The title "The Process of Burning in Reverse" is a metaphor for Kafka's failure to fulfil his last wish - that Max Brod burn all his manuscripts after his death. Contrary to the author's wishes, his friend and confidant chose to preserve the writings and drawings, ensuring the impact of Kafka's work and perpetuating some of the most important works of 20th century literature.
On tour since its premiere in September 2024, this emblematic show is now being presented for the first time outside Portugal, going on to Croatia, at the Šibenik Dance Festival (in July), and Lithuania (in October). In Portugal it was presented at contraDANÇA in Guarda and in Mafra, and no new dates are planned. The presentation in Seatle - USA has the support of FLAD - Luso-American Development Foundation, and in Sibenik - Croatia, of the Portuguese Embassy in Croatia / Instituto Camões in Zagreb.
São Castro was a dancer with Balleteatro, Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporâneo and Ballet Gulbenkian. She began choreographing in 2009 and since 2011 has developed an artistic collaboration with choreographer and dancer António M Cabrita, with whom she created ‘Dido e Eneias’ (2017) for the Companhia Nacional de Bailado. In 2015, the two of them were honoured with the Authors Award - Best Choreography, by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores. Some of his pieces have been considered by the national press to be among the best dance shows of the year. In 2016 he created ‘The Art of Losing’ for the Companhia de Dança de Almada.
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Mai. 23, 2025
