Né Barros

The bodies of resistance and passion, of freedom and death. The bodies in IO are machines, landscapes and animals of war and peace. Paisagens, Máquinas e Animais [Landscapes, Machines and Animals] is also the title of a series of future projects. IO is one of the four large moons of Jupiter. In spite of being located in an icy region, it is the place with the most volcanic activity in the Solar System. The record and the choreographic piece drew inspiration from this extreme environment. Manipulating and deconstructing the baritone saxophone’s rich and hypnotic timbre, this is a one-breath, patient, multi-layered piece that is openly influenced by the sci-fi universe and strongly marked by the introspective tones characteristic of BlacKoyote. The adapted presentation at Teatro Rivoli in the scope of its anniversary celebrations maintains this kind of tension and contrasts, but at the same time opens itself to new rewritings of the piece that capitalise on the place where it will be presented.


NÉ BARROS is a choreographer, dancer and researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto in the Aesthetics, Politics and Knowledge Group. Her artistic work goes hand in hand with her academic studies and researches. She first had training in classical dance with Ruth Howner, and then studied contemporary dance and choreographic composition in the United States (Smith College). She has a doctorate in dance (University of Lisbon) and a master’s degree in dance studies (Laban Centre London). She completed a post-doctorate in aesthetics, focusing on performance, at the Institute of Philosophy, and she studied theatre at ESAP – Porto Higher School of Arts. As a choreographer, she has worked with several visual artists, photographers, musicians, directors and multimedia artists such as Albuquerque Mendes, Alexandre Soares, Carlos Guedes, Cesário Alves, Cristina Mateus, Daniel Blaufuks, Elastic Group of Artistic Research, Fahr 021.3, Filipe Martins, Gabriela Vaz-Pinheiro, Gustavo Costa, João Martinho Moura, José Alberto Gomes, José Álvaro Correia, Lygia Pape, Nuno Coelho, Manuel Casimiro, Nuno Carinhas, Ricardo Pais, Roberto Neulichedl, Saguenail, Sérgio Azevedo and Vera Castro. She carries out most of her artistic projects in the scope of balleteatro, but she also worked with the National Ballet of Portugal (having received a best choreography award), Ballet Gulbenkian and Aura Dance Company (Lithuania). She wrote the books Performances e Pós-Fenomenologia-Apropriação e Contacto, Da Materialidade na Dança and Dança: Corpo e Casa, and edited Performances no Contemporâneo, Deslocações da Intimidade, Artes Performativas: Novos Discursos, Das Imagens Familiares, Story Case Print (2009) and Metamorfoses do Sentir. She published several articles on issues such as aesthetics, philosophy of dance and performance, dance composition and scenic arts. She co-directs the book collections Estética, Política e Arte [Aesthetics, Politics and Art] and Máquinas de Guerra [War Machines], both published by the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto. She teaches at ESAP and is an invited lecturer at several institutions. She co-founded balleteatro, and she is the artistic director of the international film festival Family Film Project – Archive, Memory, Ethnography.

JOSÉ ALBERTO GOMES was born in Porto, in 1983. He is a musician, sound artist and curator. He completed the piano course at the Porto Music Conservatory and then a degree in composition at ESMAE – Higher School of Music and Performing Arts in 2007. He has a strong interest in the new musical technological possibilities and in the role music plays in theatre, film and installation, especially looking to find new musical forms and “places”. He has a doctorate in computer music from the Catholic University of Porto and has been involved in the teaching of art and new media, including composition at ESMAE, electronic music and music production at the Higher School of Applied Arts – Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (ESART-IPCA), and the master’s degree in media and digital arts at the University of Minho. He currently coordinates the education service Braga Media Arts (UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts), developing and guiding contents, performances and artistic projects that make use of new technologies in the fields of art, community and education. He teaches at the School of Arts of the Catholic University of Porto in the master in engineering of digital games development and in the doctorate in media and digital art at the Open University Portugal. He holds public presentations alone, in partnership or within a collective on a regular basis (with, for instance, BlacKoyote, Digitópia Collective, Srosh Ensemble, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Gustavo Costa, Ricardo Jacinto, Henrique Portovedo and Jon Rose), and composes music and does the sound design for theatre plays and video, such as From Peter Handke’s Essay About the Successful Day (Teatro da Comuna), Longe (in the scope of FITEI – International Theatre Festival of Iberian Expression at Teatro Rivoli), Cidade Domingo (Teatro Oficina/Guimarães 2012 – European Capital of Culture), Prometeu (Teatro de Formas Animadas) and Ínsua (Ruptura Silenciosa). As a creator and developer of sound installations, he presented A Perpetuação do Tempo sob o Presente (European Heritage Days), Re-Interpretação Urbana (Serralves Foundation) and Substantive Derivative (Emiliano Zelada/Ingresso Pericoloso). He also wrote electronic music and composed music for instrumental ensembles for Joana Gama and Luís Fernandes (At the still point of the turning world), Drumming – GP, Nuno Aroso, João Dias, Henrique Portovedo, FactorE, Srosh Ensemble/Serralves Foundation and Orquestra Estúdio/Guimarães 2012 – European Capital of Culture.