Companhia Nacional de Bailado

For the last programme of the season, the National Ballet of Portugal (CNB) brings together three major contemporary dance choreographers: Hofesh Shechter, Vasco Wellenkamp and Ohad Naharin. Vasco Wellenkamp, one of the greatest references of Portuguese contemporary dance, was invited to create a new choreography for CNB, which is joined by Minus 16, a piece by Naharin that the company performs once again, and Uprising, a piece by Shechter that CNB includes in its repertoire for the first time. 

Uprising
Seven men emerge from the shadows to fill the stage with furious energy, bonding and fighting, making up and falling out again. These men are driven by a force that seems to take them further and further, before disappearing into the darkness.
Uprising is a work highly contagious for its vibrancy and energy, through a pulsating percussion score by Hofesh himself.

Sinfonia dos Salmos [Symphony of Psalms]
Vasco Wellenkamp is an inescapable name in Portuguese dance. He has developed several projects that have contributed to the development of dance, including the creation of the Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporâneo, alongside Graça Barroso, in 1998, and the artistic direction of the CNB between 2007 and 2010.
His legacy is unparalleled and his creativity a constant ebullition.
At the invitation of the CNB, the choreographer revisits Sinfonia dos Salmos, a work created in 1992 for the Gulbenkian Ballet.

Minus 16
With an eclectic score ranging from Dean Martin to mambo, from techno to traditional Israeli music, Ohad Naharin's Minus 16 uses improvisation and the acclaimed "Gaga" method created by Naharin, which is based on understanding and researching movement through the connection between body and mind.
In Minus 16, Naharin started from previous pieces to develop a new work, a reorganization that for the choreographer creates possibilities to look at his works from different angles, while at the same time creating coherence in his work.
It is with this piece that Ohad Naharin's ability to get audiences dancing is confirmed.