At home in the air -- Jorge Salavisa with Hellen Starr in the first act of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake on a London stage (Photo from the Observador)
After 18 years away from home, Jorge Salavisa brought back with him the daring for which Portuguese dance companies are known today. In his three decades in Lisbon, starting as artistic director of the Gulbenkian Ballet, he taught generations of dancers who, in turn, taught others, to take risks.
He and the first winners of the dance award honoring him have at least one thing in common: they all lived and worked away from their home countries for long stretches of time. The purpose of the Salavisa European Dance Award is "to distinguish artists from all over the world who demonstrate talent or special qualities that deserve to be better known outside their national borders".
Perhaps, barring genocide, unstable government and dictatorship, more artists would have more choice regarding their country of work.
Idio Chichava and Dorothée Munyaneza are the co-winners of the award created by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in collaboration with six other European artistic institutions, to honor the legacy of the dancer, teacher and artistic director Jorge Salavisa (1939-2020), announced the foundation on November 27.
The two will share a 150,000-euro prize.
They also will have the opportunity to present their work on the stages of the partner cultural institutions: Sadler's Wells (United Kingdom); Joint Adventures (Germany); Dansehallerne (Denmark); KVS (Belguim); Maison de la Danse/Biennele de la Danse (France), and ImPulsTans -- Vienna International Dance Festival (Austria).
"I know that art has the power to heal and say: 'I am still here. I still breathe.' And yes, to those I lost in the genocide against the Tutsis in 1995, I know that I still live for them," said Rwandan co-winner Dorothée Munyaneza. (Photo by Dajana Lothert)
Dorothée Munyaneza, 42, is a multifaceted artist. Singer, musician, dancer, actress, writer and choreographer, she rejects the discipline boundaries, using music, song, text and movement to create spaces of resonance and hope. Born in Rwanda, she studied music and social sciences in London before moving to Paris, where she worked with several choreographers. In 2013, she created her own company, Kadidi.
The jury of three found that she addresses where it hurts most, "articulating history, trauma, but also love and hope, with a deep understanding of the body and its potential to tell stories and create emotional spaces", according to the Gulbenkian Foundation.
"I know that art has the power to heal and say: 'I am still here. I still breathe.' And yes, to those I lost in the genocide against the Tutsis in 1995, I know that I still live for them," Rwandan Dorothée Munyaneza told Renasçenca (November 27).
Vagabundus, choreographed by co-winner Idio Chichava, and performed by his dance company, Converge+ -- "In its etymological sense, the vagabond is someone who travels, the wandering person who has no set destination, always looking for a place to settle down or continue the journey. There is also a pejorative meaning, that of bandit, rogue and lazy. I play with this double meaning. The piece is also linked to my return to Mozambique after 14 years in France, where I passed myself off as a tourist," he said in Condeduque Contemporary Cultural Center program notes. (Photo by Mariano Silva)
Idio Chichava is a dancer, choreographer and artistic director of the dance company Converge+ in Mozambique, where he returned after a successful career in France. In his home country, he has promoted free dance education and multidisciplinary productions. The jury found his work to be "a powerful statement of collective energy and the desire to create and coexist", according to the Gulbenkian Foundation.
Dance is a “place of honesty and sensitivity”, Idio Chichava told Renasçenca. He said that he is shocked by the political turmoil in his country.
“I live and breathe because I need to express myself. And this (freedom) is increasingly being buried in Mozambique. Today I opened my social media and saw a police car run someone over, without mercy. . . . The Mozambican regime has become totalitarian. This is not the sensitivity with which the Mozambican people want to be led .
“The only thing that comes to mind is to say: Enough! To cry out for help so that these violations of human rights and the suppression of the right to freedom of expression."
In Lisbon, he said he feels that he can speak with “freedom”. After winning this award, he hoped that his voice will be heard in Mozambique.
Among the five finalists, Dorothée Munyaneza and Idio Chichava stood out "for their particularly successful artistic approaches in their recent works, as well as for the deep connection they maintain with their artistic contexts, communities and collaborators", according to the Gulbenkian Foundation.
The other finalists were choreographer Catarina Miranda (Portugal), dancer and choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco) and dancer Dalila Belaza (Algeria/France).
The jury consisted of Mette Ingvartsen, a Danish choreographer who combines dance with visual arts and technology, Nayse López, curator and artistic director of Rio de Janeiro's Panorama Festival and Fu Kuen Tang, a Bangkok-based playwright and curator with projects in Europe and Asia, reported RTP News (November 27).
The Salavisa European Dance Award will be awarded every two years.
Jorge Salavisa Back Home
The award's namesake, Jorge Salavisa, returned home in 1977 at the age of 35.
The Lisbon native had taken his first steps at the barre with Ana Mascola, an Italian World War II exile who had opened a dance school, and, from there, danced on stages 'round the world with renowned companies, such as the London Festival Ballet and the Ballets of Paris, and worked with such luminaries as Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, according to the Observador (September 28, 2020).
"The Portuguese from London" is how the dance and theater critic, José Sasportes, referred to him in his book, Trajectória da Dança em Portugal (1979).
"He wanted to offer the Portuguese people opportunities they had not had before," said Olga Roriz, founder of her eponymous dance company, who was a dancer and choreographer at the Gulbenkian Ballet under his direction.
"Jorge wanted new things and encouraged us to think differently.
"He leaves an enormous and eternal legacy to dance in Portugal" because he "influenced many performers and creators who, in turn, continue to influence others", she told the Observador.
Aside from serving as artistic director of the Gulbenkian Ballet (1977-1996), among the many positions he held in more than 30 years in Portugal was as artistic director of the São Luiz Teatro Municipal in Lisbon (2002-2010) and director of the National Ballet Company (1998-2001).
In 1996, the Portuguese government decorated him as a Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry.
In a message of condolence upon the dancer's death due to cancer at the age of 80 in 2020, the Minister of Culture, Graça Fonseca, said that "he helped define culture in Portugal":
"Over the decades, he helped to write the history of dance in Portugal, whether as a dancer, as a teacher of generations of dancers or as artistic director. What contemporary dance is today in Portugal has the very special stamp of this exemplary artist and pedagogue.
"His role at the head of the Gulbenkian Ballet and the Companhia Nacional de Bailado made Portugal a pioneering country in the relationship among choreographers, dancers and the public. We owe him a very complete history of diversity and, from there, the activity of Portuguese artists who, through his hand, always found the conditions to assert themselves."
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