VESPA

Rui Horta turned 60 on 20 April 2017 and on that same day he premiered Vespa (wasp in Portuguese), returning to the stage after not having set foot on one during the previous 30 years. And he did so with this poetic manifesto that oozes truth, consistency and environmental ethics.
  As Afonso Becerra explains: “Vespa, in addition to being a piece of art, that amazes one by its plastic, theatrical and human quality, is a type of paradigmatic example of the artist's ability not to detach himself from his craft: the passion of locking him or herself into a study just to play, to try things out, without knowing very well what, to enjoy the discoveries and to suffer with the upheavals and crises of artistic creation, from which one is never safe. An example of his ability to return to the world of dance by dancing, closer to the work as a choreographer, director, educator or curator. An artist is someone who, allow me this joke, just like a murderer, always returns to the scene of the crime".
  Vespa begins with Rui Horta saying: “There are things that one has inside one’s head. A buzzing that bites our thoughts". Those are the first words and the ones (not always said) that carry the internal world of creation: a parenthesis, a halted time where the artist crystallizes and spits out what transcends and torments him, an instant that expands to a more vast time. “I don't know why I decided to do this play. Probably because the most important things are also the most inexplicable and less rational. Just like a serial killer who hides behind their crimes, creators also protect themselves from the public eye, hidden behind their works and their performers. The difference is that this one happened just like that, just as a possibility, a fractal, a fleeting indentation, that’s all. An unprotected place, and at least in my case, personal as it may be, it is not autobiographical". And so, as a strange creature that awakens its states of consciousness by casting off its double skin on the stage, with a ray of light illuminating its speech, he urges the viewer to reflect on humankind, ecology, culture and beauty. In Vespa, with a commitment beyond the strength of the body, Rui looks towards the future: the reduction of man to a tiny particle of the cosmos, contemplated with a certain feeling of loss, considerable compassion and a good dose of irony.
  RUI HORTA
  Rui Horta is a wild and forward-looking veteran. His work as a choreographer is considered a reference in European creation. Horta has been the driving force behind a new generation of Portuguese dancers and choreographers. In the nineties he directed the S.O.A.P. Dance Theatre of Frankfurt, touring the most important theatres of the world. And in 2000 he returned to Portugal to open Espaço do Tempo, a multidisciplinary centre for artistic experimentation housed in a 16th century monastery. At the same time, he has been a guest artist for a large number of well-known companies such as Ballet Gulbenkian, Grand Ballet de l'Opera de Genova, Marseille Opera, Netherlands Dance Theatre, Gothenburg Opera, Icelandic Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, Random Dance, etc. He has been named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France and he holds such international awards as the grand prix of Rencontres Choreographiques Internationales in Bagnolet (France).
  His creative work overflows from choreography and extends to theatre, opera, experimental music, lighting design and multimedia research, a universe frequently used in his works.



This film is included in the Joven Bono Cultural. If you are 16 to 26 years old, join here to JOBO and get your free pass.
CREDITS

Choreography, lighting and performance: Rui Horta
Original music: Tiago Cerqueira
Artistic adviser: Tiago Rodrigues and Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Dramaturgial support: Pia Krämer and Mariana Brandão
Technical direction: Tiago Coelho
Production and marketing director: Mariana Brandão
Executive producer: O Espaço do Tempo
Coproduction: Centro Cultural Vila Flor (Guimarães), Convento São Francisco (Coimbra), Teatro Aveirense (Aveiro), Centro de Arte de Ovar (Ovar), Hellerau Europäisches Zentrum der Künste (Dresden) 
Artistic residency: O Espaço do Tempo
Acknowledgements: DanceXchange & International Dance Festival Birmingham and Mateo Feijóo (Naves Matadero - International Living Arts Centre)
  SPANISH PREMIERE   
IN COLLABORATION WITH