Created by Xián Martínez - iXa

Scheduled to premiere on September 25th and 26th, 2026, at the Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite

Co-production:

Waiting for the void takes place in a suspended time.

An interval before the farewell, where the body still remains.

Figures in transit cross a space of green light and silence.

Echo of ancient rituals that never disappeared.

Everything waits.

Nothing ends.

The Santa Compaña (Holy Company) and the Procissão das Almas (Procession of Souls) are two sides of the same ancient shadow that runs through the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Both emerge from the night and the fog, walking between the real and the supernatural, between fear and faith. Their origin mixes popular Christianity with earlier beliefs, rooted in paganism and rural life, where death is never an absolute end, but a state of transition.

In both Galicia and Portugal, these processions are narrated as liminal experiences - apparitions that reveal the permeability of time and space. They represent contact with the other world, but also the constant presence of death in daily life. Their social function was twofold: to warn of human fragility and, at the same time, to offer solace, reminding us that no one walks alone, not even after death.

From a personal experience of loss and a long wait lived by Xián Martínez, the creative seed of “A Espera do Baleiro” (Waiting for the Void) is born. The idea of ​​farewell - and, above all, the time that stretches before it - became a constant presence in his imagination. This suspension between what departs and what remains, between absence and memory, becomes the central axis of the work.

“A Espera do Baleiro” (Waiting for the void) is conceived as a work for six performers, where movement transforms into breath and time into scenic material. A balance that oscillates between life and absence, a photograph where the instant is eternalized. Through stillness and repetition, the work questions the meaning of permanence and the gesture of saying goodbye.

This piece aims to open a space for shared contemplation - a territory between worlds, where dance becomes ritual and waiting, a form of eternity.

Xián Martínez - iXa is a choreographer, performer, and artistic director born in Vigo. He trained at RCPD Mariemma and graduated in Choreography and Performance from the Conservatorio Superior de Danza de Madrid. He received the “Bailarino Sobresaliente” (outstanding Dancer) award at the Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid (2023). He has worked with companies and creators such as Dantzaz, Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin), Opéra de Lille, Martin Harriague, Marta Pazos, Sol Picó, Colectivo Glovo, Itzik Galili, among others. Since 2020, he has directed iXa, accompanied by Elena Castellanos and Paula Urquijo, a contemporary dance company with a strong interterritorial identity between Galicia and the Euskal Herria. iXa's work focuses on creating pieces with a socially critical awareness, a strong use of color, and a careful poetics of imagery. iXa's works have received more than 15 awards and have been performed in countries such as Mexico, Senegal, and Bulgaria, among others. Xián, as iXa, has also created for national and international platforms and companies such as EDCM (Montreal), American Dance Festival, CDAN, and DAB Dantza. He choreographed the gala Prémios Audiovisuais Mestre Mateo together with Esther Latorre, directs and choreographs for the singer Gigi Ros, and assists in projects for companies such as Marta Alonso Tejada, Dúo Fàcil, and Enésima. In 2026, iXa premiered 52-BLAU, a piece for unconventional spaces co-produced by more than seven entities, including the leading Catalan company Dansa Metropolitana de Catalunya and the Centro Coreográfico Galego.

* Baleiro adj. Empty, completely unoccupied. In Dicionário de Galego https://www.estraviz.org/