joão fiadeiro
THIS BODY THAT OCCUPIES ME IS ALSO MY MAIN OCCUPATION ©Patricia Almeida
GENERAL INFO
GENERAL KEYWORDS: Collaboration, Contact improvisation, Decision-making, Disappearance, Instant composition, Installation work, Intuition, Non-linearity,
Portuguese New Dance, Postmodern Dance,
Real time composition, Tanztheater, Time, Velocity
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CHOREOGRAPHIC WORKS: Existência; I am here; R|existência;
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​PEOPLE: Amagatsu, Ushio; Banes, Sally; Bausch, Pina; Brown, Trisha; Camacho, Francisco; Childs, Lucinda; Cunningham, Merce; Denis, Ruth St.; De Keersmaeker, Anna Teresa; Dias, Claudia; Fuller, Loïe; Graham, Martha; Hamilton, Julyen; Johnson, Leroy
Lepecki, André; Limon, José; Madonna; Mantero, Vera; Nelson, Lisa; Parsons, David; Paxton, Steve; Pizamiglio, Daniel; Selavisa, Jorge; Shawn, Ted; Taylor, Paul; Tompkins, Mark; Vandekeybus, Wim; Zambrano, David
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PLACES: a.pass; Atelier Real; Ballet Gulbenkian; Brazil; Centre Pompidou; Colégio das Artes; Forum Dança; Jacobs Pillows; Lisbon; Mexico; Museum Serralves; New York; Paris; Porto; Portugal; Tenerife; Universidade de Coimbra
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DOI NUMBER: https://doi.org/10.14277/unive/mnemedance/06fiadeiro/2021
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CITATION: ​Interview with João Fiadeiro, Alice Godfroy, online (24/08/2021). Project “Mnemedance”, Collection Mnemedance (#Mnemedance06) URL:<https://www.mnemedance.com/joão-fiadeiro>, (accessed dd/mm/yyyy).
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INTERVIEWS MAY ONLY BE REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION BY MNEMEDANCE
ABOUT
This interview tracks the notion of memory along a life trajectory that could make a person believe, too hastily, its irrelevance within it. Dancer, choreographer, researcher, curator, teacher, JOÃO FIADEIRO has crossed a wide spectrum of practices which, from jazz to neoclassical ballet and post-modern dance, molded his need to improvise and explore the territories of the present. The ethic of being in the present leads him to reverse the belief that improvisation does not work with memory. On the contrary, diving into the folds of time where past, future and present collide, reveals to him the existence of another kind of memory, palpable and active, which could be sought in the present. Based on his research on time, Fiadeiro has systematised his intuition into what he calls Real Time Composition, a practice that simultaneously performs a gesture of suspending, a poetic of disappearance and an ethic of standing on the edge.
I AM (NOT) HERE ©Patricia Almeida
INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS
[00:05:21]
What does it mean today for you to speak about memory?
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[00:16:35]
What kind of personal memories does the word dance bring to your mind?
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[00:28:06]
What kind of knowledge do you hold in your body? Would you like to let go of something?
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[00:36:44]
Would you say that the virtuoso dancer in you has totally disappeared? When you improvise, do any of your past practices emerge?
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[00:44:31]
When did you start defining yourself as a choreographer?
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[00:47:53]
Does your work integrate the history and memory of dance?
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[00:52:48]
What kind of memory does the act of improvising require?
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[01:05:19]
How do you imagine the possible continuation of the memory of your work? What is your relationship with the archive?
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[01:11:27]
Would you relate the PhD you are writing with a gesture of memory?
I AM HERE_recovered ©Arturo Laso
BIOS
JOÃO FIADEIRO is a Portuguese performer, choreographer, researcher, teacher and curator. He belongs to the generation of artists who emerged in the late eighties in Portugal and gave rise to the New Portuguese Dance movement. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, North and South America with his solo and group works. In the 90s, João Fiadeiro studied and practiced intensively Contact Improvisation which led him to pursue and systematize his own research on improvisation under the designation of Real Time Composition. This research has led him to coordinate workshops in Masters and PhDs programs in several schools and universities throughout the world.
With an advanced training in comparative literature and a long practice of classical and contemporary dance, ALICE GODFROY ever since hovers between academic and non-academic disciplines, scientific traditions (France, Germany), theory and practice, poetry and dance. Assistant Professor in Dance Studies at the University Côte d’Azur (France) since 2015, she is actually developing a research project on improvisation. She initiated in 2019 the first edition of the Improvisation Summer School at the Villa Arson in Nice as well as a Master's Major in Dance Improvisation at the University Côte d’Azur.