Instável — Centro Coreográfico & Helder Seabra

An area where the land is close to or below sea level is called a lowland, which also refers to Freud’s theory, who compares the mind to an iceberg—it floats with a seventh of its volume, its only visible portion, above water.
In this piece for eight performers, the creator dives below sea level, into the “unconscious mind”, and guides the artists and the audience on a journey through the “waiting room of the mind”, where thoughts remain until they manage to attract the conscious’ attention. Primal instincts (desires, fears, wishes, believes and anxieties, among others) and impulses kept at a distance resurface no longer disguised by the mannerisms of adult niceties. The physicality associated with the unconscious becomes the main character, and it resorts to the body.
In a meeting between people in an “empty space”, the search for a common essence may allow for a deeper understanding of our daily life and our personal and collective identity.
By means of a highly physical and experimental dance and theatre aesthetics, one tours the shadow world of existence, of inner stories that unfold beyond language and words. — Helder Seabra


Instável — Centro Coreográfico works to promote contemporary dance, developing activities in the areas of artistic creation, training and support for creators, research and public development. It is a lively and informal space where multiple creators and performers pass, in a logic of an incubator of experimentation, where meetings, work and learning are promoted, based on collaboration and encouragement.
In its concept and designation — "Instável" —, it comprises the mutation of dance as an artistic cell characterized by movement and the way of functioning that gave rise to the structure. Founded in 1999 by Ana Figueira, it became known through the Companhia's creations: in each edition, a guest creator, a group of performers selected for audition, a new work, a circulation and the natural fading of production with the birth of the other, in a renewed cycle of life.

Helder Seabra is a prolific creator, performer and educator currently living in Belgium. He started his journey at Ginasiano (Gaia) and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels). In parallel, he performed for Companhia Instável in creations by Ronit Ziv and Javier de Frutos, and in 2004 for Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez in the restaging of Les Porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles [The Bearers of Bad News], co-produced by Instável. He has since worked as performer and assistant to Wim Vandekeybus, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet and other world-renowned choreographers in critically-acclaimed projects. In 2013, he founded the company Incognitus, with which he has carried out his own artistic career in collaboration with other artists. Displaying a pronouncedly dynamic and articulated style that is both raw and refined, Helder Seabra presents a very personal artistic language that involves great physicality.