Optraken on the Big Stage

Today ends O Sentido dos Mestres, training dedicated to the general theme Behind the show, taught by Franco Leara. The last theme of this formation starts from a quote by William Burroughs: “There is no time without change in paradise…”.

The Sense of the Masters takes place at Casa da Cerca – Center for contemporary art, from 3 pm to 6 pm. At 6 pm, on the Esplanada of the D. António da Costa School, we have another Colloquium on the Esplanada, this time with Noé João, director of Ventos do Apocalypse. At 6:30 pm, at the Centro Cultural de Belém, the first session of Momo begins, and there will be a second session of the show at 9 pm. At 7 pm, the Joaquim Benite Municipal Theater presents Minuit, by Yoann Bourgeois Art Company, for the last time. At 8.30 pm there is music on the terrace of the D. António da Costa School with Flamenc4et, Diego EL Gavi’s band. At 10 pm, Optraken is presented on the Grand Stage, by the French company Galactik Ensemble.

Five acrobats dribble for an hour, without ever falling, all kinds of objects and obstacles. Contrary to the lyrics of a song by Brazilian singer Elza Soares, they never get up, because they never fall. But yes, these ‘galácticos’ shake the dust and turn around, as in the song. Nobody drops them. They propose a circus tour de force. However, the objective of these performers is much more ambitious: “Acrobatics does not appear in this show just as a way of defying the laws of gravity, but rather as an attempt, through experimentation, to face the unpredictable, in that short instant in which control escapes us; that moment when we dodge, avoiding the fall and regaining our balance”.

Optraken, a word that sounds fun, is the term that designates a deviation of the legs on a ski slope to avoid obstacles. And it also means ‘corkscrew’ in Norwegian, reminding us that after all, we find ourselves in a situation of unstable equilibrium much more often than we thought. “The image of a mosaic is what best defines the anatomy of our project”, says this collective of acrobats. “We adopted polyphonic structures. We do not follow a linear argument. No sooner does a wall nearly collapse on us than another lifts up, allowing us to move from a kitchen to a seaside landscape, and from a forest to a child’s bedroom. We want to believe that time expands as a sheet of paper unfolded infinitely.”

Optraken (Palco Grande da Escola D. António da Costa, 14th to 22h)

• Interpretation: Mathieu Bleton, Mosi Espinoza, Jonas Julliand, Karim Messaoudi and Cyril Pernot
• Scene Direction: Victor Fernandes
• Stage management: Charles Rousseau
• Construction and creation of machinery: Franck Breuil
• Light design: Adèle Grépinet
• Light operator: Romain Caramalli
• Sound and music design: Denis Mariotte
• Sound operator: Eric Sterenfeld
• Production and distribution: Léa Couqueberg
• Production and management: Emilie Leloup
• Duration: 1h00m
• Rating: M/6
• collective creation
• Galactik Ensemble (France)
• Support: Institut Français du Portugal

More information at www.ctalmada.pt

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