Absurd lamentation with two goddesses and crumbled meringues.

Two women in the same long white garments are in the centre of the stage like Greek goddesses. Filled with melancholy they deliver a whole litany, in which meringues reduced to powder play a leading part. Indeed, the Portuguese word 'suspiro' refers both to 'sigh' (which the two Fates on stage do in abundance while singing their fate) and to the well-known Portuguese meringues which Teresa Silva and Elizabete Francisca don't leave a scrap of. The absurdist tableaus on stage slowly degenerate into cannibalistic rituals, in which the two dancers drag one another through the mud – or better, through the flour. The title of the piece can be freely translated as “an unexpected amazement”, which is an appropriate name for this playful dance duet : a surprising meeting with the wonderful world of two of the most talented young Portuguese choreographers of the moment. Um Espanto nao se espera already had its premiere in 2011 and has successfully toured France and Portugal for the last years.

Teresa Silva studied at the National Conservatory Dance School, the Lisbon Poly-Technical Higher School of Dance (Degree in dance) and completed the Choreographic Creation, Dance Research and Training Programme (PEPCC) promoted by Fórum Dança. She was awarded the DanceWEB Scholarship in 2011, with the mentoring of Boyzie Cekwana and Isabelle Schad, with a grant from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. From her training, she highlights the seminars with Deborah Hay, Meg Stuart, Vera Mantero, Loïc Touzé, João Fiadeiro, Julien Hamilton, Lisa Nelson, Mark Tompkins, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Ko Murobushi and Jonathan Burrows. She has been working as an independent choreographer and performer since 2008. As a performer, she has worked with Liz Santoro & Pierre Godard in For Claude Shannon, Loïc Touzé in Fanfare and Ô Montagne, Rita Natálio in Museu Encantador, Tiago Guedes in Hoje, Luís Guerra in Fog,Tânia Carvalho in Icosahedron, Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz in O mesmo mas ligeiramente diferente and Mariana Tengner Barros in Peça do Coração, among others. Her creations include Ocooo (2008), with the coaching of Loïc Touzé; A vida enorme/La vie en or co-created (2009) with Maria Lemos; Leva a mão que eu levo o braço (2010) and Um Espanto não se Espera (2011), both winners of the National Contest Jovens Criadores, both created in collaboration with Elizabete Francisca; Conquest (2011), a solo adaptation of a Deborah Hay choreography, commissioned by Fundação de Serralves; and What remains of what has passed  (2013) and Letting Nature take over us again (2013), both co-created with Filipe Pereira. Between 2011 and 2014, she was an associated artist of Materiais Diversos, under the direction of Tiago Guedes.

Elizabete Francisca started her studies on visual arts and completed a degree in Industrial Design (ESAD-CR). After some months at the Lisbon Poly-Technical Higher School of Dance she completed the Choreographic Creation, Dance Research and Training Programme (PEPCC), at Fórum Dança, where she worked with Loic Touzé, Emanuelle Huyn, Nuno Bizarro, Mark Tompkins, Vera Mantero, Meg Stuart, Miguel Pereira, Francisco Camacho, Deborah Hay, João Fiadeiro, Lisa Nelson, João Tabarra, among others. She works as a performer and creator in the field of performing arts since 2009. As interpreter and/or artistic collaborator she highlights the work with Ana Borralho & João Galante in Sexy MF, I Put a Spell on You, Untitled Still Life, Art Piss on money and politics, Purgatory and Here we are; Rita Natálio in I don't understand and I am afraid of understanding, the world scares me with its planets and cockroaches; Loic Touzé in Ô Montagne and Around the Table; Tânia Carvalho in Icosahedron, Mariana T. Barros in Piece of the Heart and The Weather; with Mark Tompkins in Improvisations and collaborations: Improvisation on the basis of Terry Riley`s IN C, among others. Since 2013 she has been working regularly with Vera Mantero, namely in the projects, Surreptitious - clandestine body, Shadows Are Offered, Rather Less than More and The Dirty and the Clean.
In collaboration with Teresa Silva she created the duets Take the hand that I take the arm and There´s no waiting for wonder, both winners of the National Contest Jovens Criadores, 2010/2011. In 2013 she creates the solo TSUNAMISM, recital for two strings in M, premiered at Culturgest, Lisbon. She also created two short films along with Francisca Manuel, Andar para ser visto de frente and Travel Shot, screened at the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Chiado. More recently she made her first step into the cinema as an actress, in the film Where I grow old by the film director Marília Rocha, where she won the prize of best actress in the Festival de Brasília do Cinema Brasileiro, in Brazil. She was an associated artist of Materiais Diversos, under the direction of Tiago Guedes between 2011-2013. Currently she is supported by the structure O Rumo do Fumo of Vera Mantero.

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*Kortrijk - 01.12, 19:00