Cleo Diára, Isabél Zuaa & Nádia Yracema

In Aurora Negra [Black Dawn] the singing starts in the voice of a woman who speaks. Creole. Chokwe. Portuguese. There are three bodies, three foreign women on stage speaking those three languages. The essence, personality and path of each woman intersect with those of the others certain that nothing will be the same. In this Aurora Negra, they search for the deepest, most original roots of those cultures, celebrating their legacy and envisioning a journey where they assert themselves as the main characters in their stories.


Cleo Diára was born on September 2, 1987, in Praia, Cape Verde. She moved to Lisbon as a child and did most of her studies there. She had her first theatre experience with the university theatre group mISCuTEm, starting her professional artistic training at the Lisbon Theatre and Film School in 2012. She has performed in several theatre projects by Portuguese directors since 2015, including Rogério Carvalho, Mónica Calle, Sónia Baptista and Mário Coelho. She was also cast for several Portuguese and international film productions, of which she highlights Diamantino, by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, Verão Danado [Damned Summer], by Pedro Cabeleira, and Terra Amarela [Yellow Country], by Dinis Costa.

Isabél Zuua is a Portuguese actress and performer whose origins lie in Guinea-Bissau and Angola. Her first artistic experience was with the Lisbon-based African dance group Prata Luar. Her main training took place at Chapitô (theatre acting), the Lisbon Theatre and Film School (theatre) and the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (scenic arts). She researches new dramaturgies with Black women as protagonists and hosts of their own stories, demystifying stereotypes and prejudices. She has been jumping between dance, film and theatre projects since 2010 in both Brazil and Portugal, working with Marcelo Gomes, Laís Bodanzky, Yasmin Thayná, Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra, Felipe Bragança, Cláudia Pinheiro, Gustavo Ciríaco, Jorge Andrade, Tiago Vieira, Tino Seghal, Denise Stutz and Felipe Ribeiro, among others.

Nádia Yracema was born on July 3, 1988, in Luanda, Angola. She started learning and acting with the Coimbra University Theatre, completing her training in the 2007/2008 school year, while pursuing a degree in Law at the University of Coimbra. She joined the acting course at the Lisbon Theatre and Film School in 2012. She has often performed in theatre productions, working with Portuguese and international directors. She is also actively engaged in several social bodies that foster collaborative work in film, theatre and performance. In 2018, she took part in the international project École de Maîtres.