ALDARA BIZARRO

But soon after, in front of our eyes, a small country forms and starts to travel across a mapa mundi that is carefully drawn and corrected by the young woman over more than 1200 years. In this long voyage of existence, that leads to the present day, we watch critically the creation of Portuguese identity(ies), in a dialogue with global political, cultural and economic realities. Using a simple and effective device - a dancer talking and drawing a map, teasingly centred on a Portugal not to scale and full of itself -, we have a large amount of important information to discuss with young people, face to face: “- Who are we, today and here, in this small country that tries to fit into a tired Europe? How has our history been taught to us? How would we like to continue to write it? How can we be better Portuguese?” 

Aldara Bizarro is a choreographer and former dancer. She was born in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1965. She studied dance, from the age of 5, in Luanda, Lisbon, New York and Berlin. As a performer, she worked with several Portuguese choreographers in the 1980s and 1990s. She has worked as a choreographer since 1990 and is a member of the Nova Dança Portuguesa group. Her artistic work focused on creation for younger audiences and the development of projects for the community.