BoCA Summer School: Distortion, by Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

“Distortion”
Dance workshop directed by Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz

In this workshop, choreographers and dancers Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz propose that participants go in search of the intermediate or transitional place between what is familiar and what is foreign to us. Looking for a limit, not so much in the sense of extreme physical and emotional experience (which is also of interest in this process), but in the moment when some system is unable to respond or compensates for this lack with a displaced response. For this reason, Sofia and Vítor have been developing a series of research and improvisation tools with simple and clear premises, some of which they call “impossible tasks”, where the focus is not so much on their virtuoso execution, but on the way we transgress and distort them – revealing some of the intimate connections we establish with things. Throughout the workshop, the choreographers will work on the relationship between gesture and movement with the word and the voice: the word, assumed as malleable matter that exists beyond its meaning; the voice, as the excess that “overflows” the bodies.

BIOGRAPHIES
Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz are a duo of artists/choreographers who have been collaborating since 2006. The hybrid nature of their research, combined with a curiosity and need for experimentation, has led them to create various shows, performances, soundtracks, videos, podcasts and installations, crossing different contexts and blurring boundaries between artistic areas. Their stage shows, predominantly performed by the two of them, call for a refined choreographic language in connection with words and voice, and have been presented in more than 17 countries. In 2011, they were honoured with the Prix Jardin d’Europe and Aerowaves Spring Forward for their 2011 show Um gesto que não passa de uma ameaça. They have been invited to collaborate with various artists, including Catarina Dias, Marco Martins, Clara Andermatt, Mark Tompkins, Felipe Hirsch, Boris Charmatz and, more frequently, Tiago Rodrigues. They teach occasionally and have organised residencies and research groups for artists in different contexts. They were invited to curate PACAP 2 (2018/2019) and PACAP 6 (2023) – Advanced Creation Programme in Performing Arts. Between 2023/24, they are Resident Artists at the Champalimaud Foundation.