Vânia Doutel Vaz

The saying "there is an elephant in the room" suggests that in the presence of an obvious element it can be ignored. Elephants I bring with me, elephants that the audience brings with them and also those that arise in the relationship between who observe and who is observed. Seeing, feeling, ignoring, swerving and then seeing something else, playing something else, dancing through different matters generate a kind of attention and practice towards alternatives. Questioning and making possible what may be there. Multiplicity in oscillation, possibilities in resilience. Every person or science, every experience or theory will try to define what is here or will arise. Still and because of that, so much will be missing. These are issues that pulse in this piece and with which elephants dwell and dialogue with. — Vânia Doutel Vaz


Vânia Doutel Vaz is Angolan and was born in Setúbal. She studied at Royal Dance Academy, at Escola de Dança do Conservatório Nacional and at Forum Dança. She was a member of the Portuguese Contemporary Ballet Company, Nederlands Dans Theater, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (CLCB) and PUNCHDRUNK. As a freelance artist, she has collaborated with Trajal Harrell, Eszter Salamon, Uri Aran and Tânia Carvalho, among others. She created ad aeternum, video performance commissioned by TBA included in Recolhimento Obrigatório (2020); Bureauc’Art, performance presented at CunstLink gallery (2019); and THEIR – piece in lab for CLCB (2015). She was an assistant movement director in Uma Dança das Florestas, by Zia Soares.